


Rise of the Guardians 2: The Darkness Rising

by SaraQ



Category: Brave (2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010), The Lorax (2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-03-21 18:31:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 29,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraQ/pseuds/SaraQ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We’ve all heard of Pitch Black, Spirit of  fear and darkness. But what on  the other spirits. The Spirit of Vanity and the Spirit of Greed. Many Spirits are unhappy with the way the world is today. They are hated everywhere and when Pitch offers them the chance to change things, they jump at the chance.<br/>This time the Guardians cannot stop him alone. They barely stopped him the last time with Jack Frost’s help. They now need to enlist the help of other Spirits. The only problem: Most of them aren’t Spirits yet.<br/>Jack Frost must travel with the Spirits of Summer and Magic,  through time and find the People MIM has chosen for the task. The Guardians also must hold Pitch and his followers at bay till he returns lest the world be plunged into fear and Chaos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Ice. That’s the first thing I remember

Ages past. I stood in the dark suspended in ice for who knows how long

My mind was a vague blur. The numbing cold was fogging my mind and dulling my senses. I was dimly aware of my staff in my hand and if I’d be thinking straight I could have melted the ice without a second thought.

But ice and all things cold were my weakness being the Spirit of Summer and all. So I was stuck there frozen in limbo.

All at once it melted and I was looking at a girl with the wildest hair I’ve ever seen.

“Are you alright” She said in an accent that sounded scottish.

“Yeah” I said  I heated my skin up and instantly dried. I turned back to my rescuer.

She was a girl about 15 or 16 with curly red hair. She was wearing an old fashioned dress with a floor length cloak and a bow at her side.

“Who are you” She asked  

“I’m Breeze Fever, Spirit of Summer. Thanks for getting me out of there.”

“No trouble” She said “I’m Merida Dunbroch, Spirit of Magic”

I grinned “So they finally replaced Hecate. ‘Bout time too, the old hag. She’s the reason I was stuck in there.

“Why’d she put you in there”

“I may have unintentionally incurred her wrath.” She raised her eyebrows

“Unintentionally” She said in a disbelieving tone

“Yes. It was April Fools Day and in true holiday spirit I pulled pranks on all the spirits I know. She has an unbelievably short temper and I pulled the smallest of pranks on her and she over reacts”

Merida laughed “ What on earth did you do”

“I glued the pages of her magic book together. It’s not my fault she has no sense of humor.

“I’m glad MIM chose someone close to my age.” I said “It gets boring with only adults.

Merida wrinkled her nose “I’m glad you're here too. There’s another spirit our age, but he’s obnoxious to the 13 power.”

“Really” I said “Who is he”

“Frosty-er Jack Frost. He’s the Spirit of Winter and the Guardian of Fun.

“Guardian” I exclaimed “Since when did the Guardians accept new members.”

“According to Jack, MIM chose him as a guardian 3 years ago to battle Pitch Black. I was made a Spirit 2 years after that.”

“Imagine that” I said “The guardians needing help. I can’t picture them going for help even if they need it. Especially if Jack is as mischievous as he sounds.How long was I in there.”

Meri told me the date and I froze. “But tha-that’s almost 492 years” I said. “I was in there for 492 years. Meri how did you know where I was?”

“The wisps lead me down to Hecate old lair.” She said “I found you encased in magic ice.”  

I stood “Meri it’s been lovely talking but I really must go. I have 492 years of pranks and jokes to catch up on so I really must be going.

“Where are you going” she asked

I grinned “To see an old friend of mine.”

She grinned as well “Somehow I get the feeling this friend of yours won’t be as happy to see you as you are to see them.”

“Nope, Probably not” I said. I stepped over to the window. “It’s due time I went to visit ol’ grey ears again.  


	2. Chapter 2

I flew across the sea, laughing from the sheer pleasure of being free. I’d always loved flying it was one on the best parts of being a spirit.

As I made my way to the Warren I grinned. Bunny was always the funnest to prank as he had the funnest reactions. He was a rule follower at heart and hated when things weren’t what they should be. I crept into the Warren cautious for any sign of Bunnymund. Oddly enough he wasn’t out painting eggs. This was rather unusual for him as it was 3 months until Easter. Makes it easier for me I suppose.

I flew around the warren and did what I did best: created mayhem. I first went to his big river of paint and turned it white. That’s one of my powers. Being able to control colors. Very useful for pranks. A thought occurred to me and I laughed.

Bunnymund and North have this on going argument on whose holiday is the best. I very much doubted that they had finally stopped-even after 492 years. I changed the paint and design of the eggs to match Norths holiday. I even decorated the giant egg guardians that he has with tinsel and holly.

To finish it off I turned his grass dark green and wrote with red paint on his lawn: Have a Very Merry Christmas. I flew up into the air and surveyed my work.

I grinned "Now for the Pole

   

* * *

 

As I flew over the frozen wasteland, I shivered. I didn’t like coming here much but playing pranks on North and the Yetis was too much of a temptation. I quietly came through one of the windows. Everything looked fairly normal. Yeti’s were working, North was eating cookies and the elves were causing chaos wherever they went. I quietly beckoned to a group of the latter and snuck in the kitchens.

I started looking everywhere, in every nook and cranny. “Where has he hidden it this time” I murmured.  I opened a cabinet that was tucked away in a corner. “Ah jackpot!” I pulled out one of the many boxes inside and a delicious small came wafting out. Freshly made chocolate. I took out a piece and then passed the rest down to the group of elves below. Within minutes I was surrounded by  greedy elves. Normally they aren’t allowed to have chocolate because of the effect it has on them. It makes them super hyper unlike any of the other sweets around the North Pole. To put a long story short it multiply all the chaos that they create by tenfold.

As fate would have it, The elves love it above all other food. North re-hides his store of chocolate multiple times a year. It seems that he has finally found a place that the elves cannot get to without out outside help. And thats where I come in. The elves and I are old friends. They were the ones that first helped me get into the Pole and they often will join me in creating mischief at the Pole and the chocolate is partly my thanks and mostly just another way to mess with the yetis and North.

Satisfied with my work with the elves, I leave them to their eating and enter the workshop. As soon as I enter an alarm begins to sound. Odd. North deactivated his alarm after I took advantage of it and got the elves to trip it every time anyone entered. I wonder what made him turn it back on.

At the sudden noise the yetis looked up at me...and pandemonium occurred. I was unfortunately very recognisable and all of them knew me. In the chaos I flew around changing the toy colors and patterns.

To any of the yetis that tried to stop me I grew vines and had them hanging from the ceiling. To add even more confusion the elves showed up, very hyper and armed with paint and tinsel and other Christmas decorations. Amidst this turmoil I decided to make my escape. I turned and flew right into a yeti.

“Hi Phil” I said brightly “Long time, no see” He grumbled and staff was confiscated.  I was lifted up and was taken over to North, who, hearing the commotion had come out of his office and had tried to restore order.

“Vhat in Manny’s name is going on!” He bellowed. Then he saw me and his expression darkened. “You” He said pointing his finger at me.

“Me” I said cheerfully. “Hiya North, It’s a pleasure to see you as always” At that precise moment a tunnel opened in the ground and two figures came out.

“North, she’s back” Bunny said urgently “She-” He broke off looking from the yetis and elves, the mess and then to me and North.

“Cottontail, your powers of observation never cease to amaze me” I said winking at him “Hello again, my old friend”


	3. Chapter 3

“We are not friends, mate” He said glaring at me

“You wound me, long ears.” I said. I turned to the second person that had come out of the tunnel. He was a boy about 17 years old with white hair and a frosted blue hoodie. He had a staff like mine except his was curved at the top so it was more of a shepherd's crook.  “You must be Jack Frost.”  

“The one and only” He said  “Who are you”

“She is the irresponsible, undisciplined, annoying, troublesome, obnoxious-”

“Spirit of Summer” I finished cutting Bunny off mid-sentence. “I’m Breeze Fever, Spirit of Summer”

“And of immaturity and childish behavior.” interrupted Bunny

“You flatter me Cottontail.” I said “But don’t pin your virtues on me”

“Why you-”

“Enough” said North “Before, we addresses your more recent offences.” He glanced around at his trashed workshop. “I vould like to know vhere you have been all this time.”

“That’s an interesting question” I said.  Bunny snorted

“She played a prank on someone and paid the price for it.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” I said indignantly “You don’t know that. What, do you think that I spend all my time playing jokes on other spirits?”

“Yes” said Bunny venomously. I opened my mouth furiously, but North cut me off.”

“Breeze, who vas it” he said sternly

“Who said it was anyone” I said loudly “You people have a very low opinion of me. Who says anyone trapped me.”

“Someone trapped you?” North said and Bunny smirked at me. “Who trapped you?”

I was silent for a while. “Hecate” I said sullenly

“Who’s Hecate” Jack asked

“She was the old Spirit of magic before carrot top took over.” Bunny replied still smirking “She was very powerful and she had a very nasty temper. What did you do to provoke her?”

“I pulled a very gentle prank on her” I exclaimed “She completely over reacted. I am 100% the victim here.”

“I’ll bet” Said Bunny. “I suppose that it’s also not your fault that my Warren looks like a Christmas wonderland.”

“That was you” laughed Jack “I have to give you points for that. I don’t think I’ve seen Kangaroo that angry since I made it snow in the Warren.”

“Kangaroo” I said amused “I have to keep that one.” Our conversation was cut off abruptly as an army of elves decided on us and covered us in tinsel and paint.” Bunny looked like he was about to explode.

“North!”

“Time to go” I said. I grabbed my staff from the unsuspecting Phil and together Jack and I made our retreat.           

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

I chuckled as I flew. Jack had no idea who he was up against. I was the master of mischief, the monarch of mayhem. Most major spirits had alarms and guards set up just because of me.

I had already gotten The North Pole and The Warren, so my first stop was the Sun Palace to visit Sulis. She and I had a love-hate relationship. We were both warm spirits; she was the spirit of light and healing. We were both assigned to work together sometimes and everyone expected us to get together well. The problem was that she is one of the older spirits. Like really old. She’s even older than North if you can believe that. She looks and acts like my grandmother.  

Needless to say, Sulis and I don’t get along very well. She, like Bunny, doesn't approve of my pranks and jokes on other spirits. I don’t like her stiff, formal, go’s by the rules all the time attitude. She is really fun to prank though. She has 2nd best reactions, topped only by Cottontail.  

I got to the Sun Palace and immediately noticed something was wrong. 492 years ago it was always glowing a golden light and was buzzing with activity. Right now it was as dark and silent as the grave. Which isn’t a very comforting comparison. The closer I flew towards it the worse it looked. It was not only missing the sunny glow it was in ruins as if there had a battle there.

From what I could tell, all of Sulis’s pixies were still there and physically they were fine. They seemed to be unconscious but instead of Sandy’s golden dreamsand above their heads there was black sand. I couldn't wake them so I picked them up off the floor and went to look for the Sun Spirit. I almost wish I hadn’t. I found a girl spirit up in the highest tower. It was very much Sulis and she was unfortunately very dead.  

I had no idea what to do with this bit of information. If I had arrived as the battle was happening Sulis would have been still alive and she would have know what to do. While I was technically over 600 years old I had only been awake for about 200 of them. I was still quite young for a spirit as many others were fond of telling me.

I was saved however from figuring this out as the very next second a sack was shoved over my head and everything went black         

* * *

 

The sack was pick up and roughly tossed to one side. I landed with a thud on the floor. I opened it up and got out, rolling my eyes in annoyance.  

“North, again with the sack?” I said irritably. He has a obsession with using them. I can’t imagine why. “If this is about a problem, I swear it wasn’t me .”

“I know. I need you to stay here and vait for the other’s”

“The other’s-North what is going on? What-” I was very rudely cut off as the yeti’s started grumbling and gesturing to North.

“Vhat-the Sun Palace.” He rounded on me. “Vhat happened to the palace...to Sulis? Vhere is she?”

“The palace is in ruins.” I said “It looked like it’d gone through a battle. Sulis... North, she’s dead.”

His face darkened “Vhat of her followers. The pixies.”

“They were asleep.” I frowned “Something was wrong with the dreamsand though. It was black and I couldn’t wake them up.”

He cursed “Ve are too late” He summoned a yeti “Tell Bunny off this. Warn him he might encounter trouble. He must get to Cernunnos before it is too late for him as well.”

“North what-”

“I will explain later. Vhen we are all here. PHIL!” He bellowed “Watch her. Keep her out of trouble.” He then left leaving me with even more questions than before.  

 

Soon after that, Tooth and Sandy came in.

“North, we saw the lights.” Tooth said “Is something wrong? Is it Pitch?” But North just repeated what he had said to me.

“Vhen we are all here I vill explain. Ve vill vait.” Tooth looked like she wanted to argue but then she spotted me.

“Breeze you’re back! Where have you been? Are you alright?” She gasped “Are your teeth all right.”

Before I could respond to this barrage of questions, she opened my mouth and began to inspect my teeth.

“‘my ‘eeth are fine ‘ooth.”I said “Sandy, ‘his isn’t funny. ‘op laughing.” She finally did stop, satisfied that my teeth were undamaged. “Hecate trapped me” I said “I was finally released today. Does any of you have the faintest idea of what is going on?” They shook their heads.

“I saw the lights and came here as soon as I could” Tooth said. Sandy nodded as well to indicate that the same had happened to him as well.

“I went to visit Sulis for reasons I will leave unknown” I said “When I got there, her palace was in ruins. Sulis was dead.”  They both looked shaken at this news.

“But Sulis was a very powerful Spirit” Tooth said shocked “What happened to her pixies? Are they dead as well?”

“No, but that’s the odd thing.” I turned to the Sandman “Sandy, it looked like they were asleep, but the dreamsand above their heads was black and I couldn’t wake them.” His look darkened and he made an image in the dreamsand above his head.

“Pitch Black?” I said “But didn’t you guys defeat him, like, twice now. And like you said, Sulis was a lot more powerful than he is. Not even he could take her down. Not alone.”

Our conversation was cut short as a snow globe portal opened and a yeti stepped out bearing a red sack that was twisting and yelling.

“Put me down, you deamon. Let me go!”

“Merida?” I said. The sack stopped moving.

“Breeze? Is that you?”

“Yep” I said. I took the sack from the yeti and helped her out. “What are you doing here.”

“I don’t know, ask that thing.” She said angrily “It chased me‘n Angus down and threw me in a sack.”

“North does have unhealthy obsession with using the sacks” I said “I keep trying to get him to stop but he never listens to me.” I turned to the two Guardians “Merida this is Tooth and Sandy, the Guardians of Memories and Dreams. Guys, this is Merida the Spirit of Magic.” They exchanged greetings and then Merida turned back to me.

“But what am I doin’ here” She said anxiously

“Beats me” I said “North chased me down as well and brought me here. He won’t tell any of us why, although I think it’s safe to say it’s nothing good.”

We fell silent for awhile, watching North as he paced the globe room, muttering indistinctly to himself. “Tooth” I said suddenly remembering something North had said. “Do you know who Cernunnos is?”  

“He’s the Spirit of Spring, I believe.” She said “Why do you ask.”

“North sent Bunny to warn him.” I said “He didn’t say what he was warning him of though. I think he is maybe who we’re waiting for.” Sandy made a golden snowflake over his head. “And Jack” I agreed “Speaking of Jack, where is he? Shouldn't he have responded to the lights as well.”    

“In theory-yes.” Said Tooth “In practice-not so much. Jack still getting used to being part of a team and he’s sort of a free Spirit.”

Merida made a disbelieving noise under her breath. “Sort of” She mumbled incredulously.

“He will get here as soon as he see’s the lights” Tooth said “But knowing Jack…that could be hours.”

The floor of the pole gave way to a tunnel and Bunny stepped out. “It was too late.” He said to North “By the time I’d gotten there, Cernunnos’s glade had be destroyed.”

“Vas there a battle?” North asked urgently

“No, it looked like the whole place had died.” Bunny said “It was the same thing with Thallo’s home. It had all decayed and rotted.”  

“Namtar?” North said

“Namtar.” Bunny agreed.

 

“Who’s Namtar?” I said feeling foolish.

“Spirit of Disease and Decay.” Tooth said quietly “He hasn’t been seen in over 200 years and even before that he rarely was seen or heard from by any one. Bunny are you sure it was him?”

“Positive, Tooth” said Bunny “No one else has the power to do that to a nature spirit’s home.”

“Vhat of Cernunnos and Thallo themselves?”

“Dead” said Bunny heavily “There was nothing I could do. It was over by the time I’d gotten there.”

North heaved a sigh “Very vell. Manny varned us, but I thought ve could…” He trailed off into silence.

Tooth spoke “North, what’s going on? Three very powerful spirits all died in one day. Pitch may be strong but he’s not that powerful. Even with Namtar’s help he shouldn’t be able to bring all of them down at once.”

“It is not just Pitch and Namtar.” said North darkly “The Boogieman is gathering an army of bad spirits. He has already recruited Ire, Gothel and Namtar along with many others. Manny warned me earlier today and told me to gather you two.” He indicated Merida and me.

“Why?” I asked apprehensively

“Ah, good question.” said Bunny

“Manny has chosen you two, along with 3 other’s to be new Guardians!” North said triumphantly

Dead silence.

“Us” said Merida disbelieving “Why us”

“The last time that Pitch came back, Man in Moon chose Jack as new Guardian.” North said “He was the only reason we defeated the Boogieman. He has something very special inside. His center: Fun. Manny must believe that you have an important center as vell.”

“He’s also chosen 3 other new Guardians”  Bunny said “The Spirit of Light and Healing, The Spirit of Spring and The Spirit of Fall.”

“He varned us to hurry” North said “He knew that Pitch vould be after them. Sulis vas the only one who could counteract Namtar’s decay. Cernunnos and Thallo’s were some of the more powerful Spirits and no doubt Pitch vanted to take them by surprise”

“So what happened now” I said

“Yeah” Merida agreed “They're dead. They can’t be Guardians now”

“What happens now, is what always happens after a Spirit dies” said Bunny “A new one gets chosen. That why Jack became the Spirit of Winter after Old man Winter died. The question isn’t what: it’s who.”

 

North turned to the open window. “Manny” he said “Who is chosen.” The moonlight flared brightly and the Guardian crystal began to rise. When it reached it’s full height, the light shown through it and revealed three figures: One made of green light, one of orange light and one of golden light.

The figure wreathed in golden light, was a young girl about 18 to 20 years of age. She had a crown on her head and had the longest hair I’d ever seen. It had to be about 70 feet long. Below her figure, her name was written in golden cursive: Rapunzel of Corona.

 

The person in orange light, was young man also about 20 years in age. He wore armor and of his head was a helmet with horns: a viking. He was riding an animal that I thought had long since gone extinct, a Night Fury Dragon. His name was also written below his image: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Odd name.

With a sinking feeling I realized that I recognized the third figure. The green image revealed a 21 year old young man strumming a guitar. His carefree smile boasted a completely irrational sense of optimism and along side him was a mule and wagon. My eyes drifted down to the glowing green name though I already knew it:

The Once-ler      

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

 

“What are the date’s for.” Tooth’s question startled me out of my thoughts. I looked closer at the figures and below their names a year was inscribed.

“That is the year that they will become a spirit” said North

“Wait, I thought that they became Spirits now” said Bunny “Back in that time period Sulis and the other’s are still alive.”

“Ve need to go and get them” said North “Vhen they arrive here, Manny makes them Spirits and ve make them Guardians.”

“Why doesn't he just choose someone from our time” Bunny said “It’d make things easier for us.”

“Manny chooses whom ever he thinks is most vorthy. That could be from our time, like it vas in Jack’s case. Or the Spirit could be from an entirely different time. It just depends.”

“Yeah” I said “I’m actually from a more modern time period but Manny sent me back in time to when he needed a new Summer Spirit.”

“And I’m from ancient Scotland.” Merida said “But I was brought forward in time to when I was needed.” She turned to North. “You said that we would need to bring them forward in time. Why can’t Manny do it?”

“Manny relies on Father Time to do that” He said “But Father Time has gone missing and we cannot vaste time trying to find him.” He stood up “Bunny, I need you to locate Jack as fast as possible and bring him here. The rest of you need to follow me.” He started walking away. Bunny opened a tunnel and left to find Jack. Tooth, Sandy, Merida and I glanced at each other and then began to follow North.

He led us down to where his private office is, entered and stopped in front of a door that I was not fond of.

“Umm...North are you sure we should be going in there” I said apprehensively

“Is perfectly safe” he reassured me “Besides it is not your first time in here, right”

“An experience I had hoped not to repeat” I mumbled. The room behind the door was North’s experimenting room. It contained all of his unfinished projects. I had once ventured in there only to quickly make my leave. It was actually the first time I had met North instead of the yeti’s”

Sandy had a big question mark over his head and Tooth asked “North why are we  going in here.”

“I have just the thing to help us retrieve the Spirits” He said beaming “It was almost ready with just a few kinks, but you can still use it, yes?”

I was tempted to say no, but we didn’t have very many options. “Is it like a time machine” I asked

“Exactly” He said “I vill go and get it now” North entered the door. I winced as a few bangs and crashes emanated from the room, ready to bolt incase anything exploded again.  He emerged a few minutes later with, to my eyes nothing.

“North, is it in there” I asked

“Of course it is” He scoffed. He opened his hand and held it out. We all peered into it holding our breaths in anticipation.     

 

There was a silence. Finally Merida spoke.

“It’s a watch”

Tooth spoke “North are you feeling alright. It’s been a very stressful day and-”

“I’m feeling fine Tooth” North insisted “This is it. Look at the numbers on the vatch”  I looked more closely and realized he was right.

“They’re years” I said “Where the hour is supposed to be there are century dates instead. Only there are more than 12 of them.”

“Vell, there are more than 12 centuries” said North “Move the big hand to one of the dates.” I turned the dial on the side of the watch until the big hand was resting on the year 1700. The watch glowed and then the 1700 moved into the center of the watch and now numbers like 1701 and 1702 were now listed on the side where the hours were supposed to be.

“You then move the the big hand to the year you vish to visit” said North “You have to be vearing the vatch, though for it to vork”

“Then only one person is going” I said

“No You, Merida and Jack vill be going. The rest of us must stay here and fight Pitch and his followers as best ve can for now.”

“But only one person can wear the watch at one time.” Merida said “How do all of us go if there's only one watch.”

“It vill vork on all of you if you are all holding hands” said North “Most likely.”

Merida and I exchange glances and we both were clearly not as confident in the watch as North was. It was driven out of our minds, though as Jack came bursting in through the window.

“Bunny’s in trouble” he gasped “The Warren is under attack!”      

“To the sleigh?” Tooth asked

“No time” North said. He took a snowglobe out. “The Warren” he ordered and smashed it to the ground. We all followed through the portal into the midst of a battle. Black horse’s were everywhere, made of the same black sand that I had seen at Sulis’s Palace.

“Nightmares” North spat. He took out his swords and began to fight. I heard Tooth ordering her fairies to attack and saw Sandy and his golden whips. In the confusion I saw Bunny with his boomerangs and exploding eggs. Merida raised her bow, I readied my staff and together we charged into battle.

There seemed to be an infinite amount of Nightmares. They just kept coming and coming, destroying egg after egg and with a jolt I realized that wasn’t the only thing they were doing. Wherever they touched, life died. Grass withered and the flowers that the eggs came from shriveled up. They weren’t just ruining this year’s Easter, they were destroying it for all time.

After a time the Nightmares dispersed and we heard laughing. We all tensed up and kept our weapons at the ready. Then out of the shadows, three figures appeared.Of the right was a woman, with black hair and blue eyes, wearing a red dress and black cloak. To the left was an ancient old man. If corpses could walk it would be this guy. He looked dead with his face rotting. In the middle of the three there was a tall man with spiky black hair wearing a robe. He spoke  

“Hello North, It’s been a while. Oh look, you’re all here. Toothina, The Sandman, Jack-and what’s this.” He looked at me “Breeze Fever, I believe, Spirit of Summer.” He turned to Merida. “Oh, and Merida Dunbroch, Spirit of Magic. What are you two doing here? ...unless” He raised a finger “MIM up to his old tricks I see. Recruiting helpers.”

“Your trick as vell, unless my eyes deceive me.” said North

“Yes, well you’d be surprised at how many agreed” Said Pitch “Did you enjoy my new trick Bunnymund. That was of course courtesy of my acquaintance Namtar.” North ignored him.

“Namtar, Gothel you are seriously listening to him.” North said to the old man and woman “He only promises fear and hatred.”

“It is better than nothing” rasped Namtar

“Which is all we have now, Guardian” the woman-Gothel said “We will be hated yes, but not ignored.”  

“Exactly!” said Pitch “Listen to them North, we have been ignored for too long. Well, no longer” He took a step back “Until next time”

We charged after them, but they melted into the shadows.

“They’re gone” said Bunny quietly. I looked at him. It was the first time he had spoken since we got to the Warren and he had a devastated look on his face. The Warren had been completely decimated. He turned to me “Can you fix it?”

I touched my staff to the ground and willed the grass to grow, the flowers to revive, for anything to happen. But nothing did.

Arrrgh” I yelled and slammed my staff into the ground. I knelt down and felt a tear run down my face. My powers had never failed me before and it was never for something this important.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Are you alright?” Tooth asked.

“I’m fine” I said tightly. I stood up and wiped the tear away. “So, what do we do now?”

“You need to go and retrieve the other Guardians” North said “Ve will stay here and fight for as long as ve can”

I nodded and he handed me the watch. I set it for the first date and we all joined hands”

“Vait” North said we turned to him “Goodbye and good luck” He said. We all nodded and then were sucked into a portal full of color and sound.    

  
**End of Part One**


	6. Chapter 6

It was the most horrible experience of my life. We were tossed and turned, while being spun around and around and around. Blurred images danced in front of our eyes as we tried to keep our hands together. We were in the vortex for ages it seemed before it finally spit us out.

We landed on the the floor of a forest. I wobbled on my feet for a second before keeling over and throwing up. As a Spirit I don’t have to eat and after the habit faded I all, but gave it up. So all that was coming up was bile and I seemed to have an endless supply of it.  

By the sounds of the reaching beyond my own I deduced that Jack and Meri were having a similar reaction.  I stood up, swaying, still week from the effects of the time travel. Soon after Merida stood and then after her Jack. We stood there for a second all trying to catch our breaths.

“North” I said between breaths “really needs to finish that watch.” We all started chuckling and it soon grew to full out laughter. It was partly because of my words, but mostly because we were relieved that the nightmarish trip was over.

It lasted for several minutes before it died down into a peaceful silence. We just stood there resting and waiting for one of the 2 others to ask the question. Merida finally decided too.

“So what do we do now.” She asked. Jack and I shrugged and looked around. I scanned the landscape. We were at the edge of a forest with a lake in front of us and an island in the distance. The island caught my eye and I pointed to it.

“Rapunzel had a crown on her head.” I said “I think we might want to start there.” They followed my finger and then gasped in awe. Sitting on the island was a majestic Castle. Flapping in the wind was a purple flag with an emblem of the sun.

 

Jack and I flew across the lake, while Merida walked across as Jack froze it. Usually she would have no problem. Her horse, Angus, was as fast as light and he could’ve carried her across the lake. Angus was back in our proper time though. She had to rely on Jack to be able to cross the lake, something that she wasn’t very happy with.

In the relatively short time that it took for us to cross, she and Jack had managed to start and keep and argument steadily going.  Jack in the spirit of well meaning pranks had at one point decreased the thickness on the ice he was creating. Merida fell through of course and was furious. Jack though it was hilarious and so did, I but abstained from laughing for Meri’s sake.

She was perfectly alright. She climbed back onto stable ice and was able to dry herself with magic. She started yelling at Jack and he of course, started yelling back. The yelling quieted down to just talking, but it didn’t cease.

We reached the Castle and landed. We entered and began to search for the girl with the long golden hair. Although it wasn’t fun not to be seen it did come in useful sometimes, as it did now. No one stopped us and we were free to go wherever.

We first went to the throne room, but we had no luck. The current occupants were the King, he was Eugene the Second, and the Queen was called Maria Jane. There were also others, but none that bore a resemblance to the new Spirit of light.

We roamed the Castle but had no luck. Meanwhile Merida and Jack’s fight was grating on my nerves. We entered the courtyard I and I decided that I’d had enough.

“Oh, shut it, would you” I yelled. They stared at me in stunned silence.

“Well, aren't  you the cheerful one today, Miss Sunshine.” Jack said

“Me, shut it?!” Merida said outraged “It’s his fault”

“Not my fault you can’t take a joke, Red”

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!”

We were soon arguing among ourselves, having completely abandoned our search. We might have gone on forever fighting like that if we hadn't been interrupted.

“Excuse me” A voice said timidly “Excuse me, are all of you all right?” We all turned to look at the speaker.  It was an woman with green eyes and grey hair. I inhaled sharply. It was her. It was Rapunzel. She was older, maybe 60 years old and her hair was shorter and pulled into a tight bun, but it was unmistakably the lost princess of Corona. Her age wasn’t the most surprising thing though. Her gaze was unmistakably on us, and she was looking directly into my eyes.

“Are you alright?” She repeated “ Can I help you”

 

We all stared stupidly at her for a second. No Spirit had ever, as far as I was aware, had ever been seen by an adult. It was as if growing up meant you gave up all of your childhood belief and happiness. But here was Rapunzel, an adult addressing us as she would anyone else.

“You-you can see us.”  I stammered “how…” Jack was opening and closing his mouth soundlessly, apparently lost for words.

“Of course I can” she said confused “Why wouldn’t I” She frowned “Who are you?”

I avoided the question “Are you Rapunzel of Corona” I asked

“I was Queen Rapunzel, yes” she said “My son became King last year when my husband died and I abdicated.”

Merida spoke “ Your Majesty, I am Princess Merida Dunbroch of Scotland. My companions and I are in need of your assistance.”

“Please call me Rapunzel.” She said “How may I help you” At that moment Jack decided to get his voice back.

“WeneedyoutocomewithusbacktothefutureandstopPitchBlackfromdistroyingtheworld” He blurted out. There was a ringing silence.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys! I kind of getting the feeling that no one is reading this:( If you are plz let me know. I'm going to take this story down of no one responds


	7. Chapter 7

“Pitch Black?” she said. “The boogieman?”

“Wha-you know who he is” I spluttered. This conversation got more surprising and confusing as it progressed.

All children-even those who don’t believe- have heard of The Boogieman.  He has many different names, from all different cultures. He is called the Sack Man, El Coco, and Babau. I’ve never heard a mortal before though, refer to him as Pitch Black.  

“I was warned about him as a child.” Rapunzel said “My mother-” She broke off looking pained “Well not my mother. She was my…” She struggled to find a word. “...Caretaker. Anyway she warned me of a Demon named Pitch Black who hid under childrens beds to scare them. She told me that I was safe from him up in the tower.”  

“The tower?” Jack asked

“It’s a long story” Rapunzel said “Is that who you’re talking about.”

“Er- yes.” I said. I was thrown, not only by the fact that she knew who Pitch was, but also that she was talking about this without thinking we were crazy. “Your....Caretaker was very well informed. He is the Spirit of fear and Darkness. We belong to a group called the Guardians. We fight Pitch to protect children.” I said “My name’s Breeze Fever. I’m the Spirit of Summer and my center is Laughter.”

“Your center?”

“It is the core of our being.” Jack said “It’s what we protect in children. That’s what North says at least. I’m Jack Frost and I am the Spirit of winter and my center is Fun.”

“I’m the Spirit on Magic and my center is Bravery.” Merida said “Pitch Black has gathered followers and is bent on destroying childhood happiness. We need your help.”

“How can I help you?” She asked “You have more power than I ever had”  
“Wait... you had power?” Jack asked

“Yes. I had magic hair that glowed and could heal anything.” She said “My mother was healed by a magic flower, while she was in labor. As a result I was born with hair that had the same powers as the flower.”

“You lost it?” I asked

“Yeah. I was kidnapped at birth by moth-Gothel. She had found the flower centuries before and had been using it to keep herself young. She found out that I had the same powers and took me away. She kept me in the tower until my 18th birthday when I went to see the floating lanterns. A man named Eugene Fitzherbert led me there. She found me though and tricked me into coming back. Eugene came back for me though and he cut my hair to stop Gothel.”

I let out a low whistle. “That was one messed up lady”

“No kidding” Jack muttered

Merida frowned “Gothel...that name sounds familiar” She looked at us “Doesn't it”

“Yeah” I said slowly “Yeah it does. Can’t think of why though”

She snapped her fingers “I’ve got it! It was the name of the lady with Pitch in the Warren” She turned to Rapunzel “She didn’t happen to have black curly hair and blue eyes, did she?”

“And a red dress and black cloak.” I added.

Rapunzel looked startled “Yes, that’s her. But she died.”  
“Many spirits are mortals back from the dead” I said grimly “Us three are. Gothel must have come back as a Spirit.”

“The Man in the Moon has chosen you as a new Spirit and Guardian” Jack said “You are the new Spirit of Light and Healing if you accept.”

Rapunzel looked shaken at the news of Gothel, but straightened and looked determined. “What do I need to do?”

 

Merida opened her mouth to speak, but I interrupted. “This is kind-of off topic, but you said that the flower and your hair could heal anything, right?”

“Yes” Rapunzel said confused

“Could it even heal your hair?” I asked “Could it give you back your power.”

“I guess so.” She said “I really don’t know. It doesn’t matter though, the flower’s gone and so is the power my hair had.”  

I grinned. “Maybe now.” I said “But it wasn’t 70 years ago” Rapunzel still looked confused but Jack and Merida had caught on. I held up the watch “This is a time travel device. It allows us to as far back in time as we want. We can go back a time when the flower still existed and get back your powers and your youth.” I stopped realizing what I had just said “Er-no offence”

“None taken” she said smiling. “I need some time though, to say...goodbye”

We went with her back up to the Castle and gave her some privacy as she said goodbye to her family.  When she came back I asked a question that had been nagging at me for some time.

“Punz, where did you say you were going? If you told them the truth they’d think you were crazy”

“I told them I was going to pay a visit to my cousins in Arendelle” she said “There’s actually a ship that’s leaving to go there. By the time that they find out that I’m not there, I’ll be gone.” There was a note of sadness in her tone.  

“Are you sure you want to accept, Punz” Merida asked

“Yes” Rapunzel said “I can’t Pitch or my moth-Gothel, destroy the world.”

“It’s not the world they want to destroy.” I said darkly  “They want to destroy hopes and dreams, so the only thing that kids believe in are themselves and the dark centers that they control.”

Of that happy note, I set the watch to a time about 70 years ago and we all joined hands.

“I have to warn you” I said “Time travel-at least this kind- is very unpleasant.” We all joined hands and I set the watch. The portal opened and were all sucked in the colorful wonderland of doom.    

 

It threw us out on to a rocky ledge that gradually sloped down into the shore of the lake. I got up, dizzy, but I was able to keep the contents of my stomach inside instead of on the ground. Jack wasn’t so lucky. He once again throw up all over the ground. Meri was also able to keep from vomiting and surprisingly so was Rapunzel. She was pale and was leaning against a tree, but had able to hold her ground.   

It was definitely the same place that we had been to the first time we time traveled, but there were differences, like the trees in different places and the shore wasn’t as worn away and most noticeable on one of the ledges was a golden flower. There was an old woman by it singing softly. She de-aged until she was recognisable as the Spirit that we saw in the Warren. Gothel put a basket, disguised as a bush, over the flower. She then turned and vanished into the night.  

  
  
  
  


We all climbed down to the flower, making sure that Rapunzel didn’t fall or trip or anything. When we reached it, Rapunzel knelt down and began to sing.

                                   

                                    _Flower gleam and glow_

_Let your power shine_

_Make the clock reverse_

_Bring back what once was mine_

As she sang the flower glowed with a golden light. Her hair began to glow too, starting from the roots, down to the ends.

 

_Heal what has been hurt_

_Change the Fates' design_

_Save what has been lost_

_Bring back what once was mine_

_What once was mine_

I then realized her hair was growing. She lifted up in the air and was bathed in golden light. Her hair reached her feet and when it stopped glowing it was blonde. She grew younger until she was the same age as she was in the Guardians crystle.

She grew shimmering butterfly wings and we heard a voice speak.

“Welcome, Rapunzel of Corona, Daughter of the Sun, Spirit of light and Healing, Guardian of Joy.”

It was the best moment I’d had since Sulis’s Palace. Naturally something bad had to happen next.        

  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Chapter 8

It started with one pair of eyes. Yellow and hateful, they glared at us, shining though the night. Then two pair, then three, and hundreds of them, coming closer and closer.

“Uhh….guys”I said nervously “I think we should-” The eyes charged at us, the golden light from Rapunzel revealing them to be the Nightmare horses.  We were prevented from joining hands and leaving by the unending onslaught of the fear inspiring stallions.     

“How did these things get here!” Jack yelled “Pitch won’t start his attack on us for hundreds of years in the future”

I didn’t have time to answer as I was fighting for my life.  

“Join hands” Meri shouted “We have to get out of here”

I reached out and grabbed a hand. It was Meri’s. She had Rapunzel’s hand who had Jack’s. I reached toward Jack and our fingers touched, but then then fell short. We reached out one more time and he grasped my fingers.

“Meri, set the watch” I bellowed

“What time period should I set it to?” She yelled back

“It dosen’t matter. Just get us out of here!” I felt her fingers on the watch on my wrist. She turned the knob of the side of the watch and I saw a burst of colorful light. We were pulled in. We weren't the only ones.

“They’ve followed us in.” Jack yelled “They’re gaining on us.”

“Thanks for that, Captain Obvious.” I said sarcastically

“Welcome Sunshine”

“I’m going to try and get us to another time.” Merida yelled

“Can you do that inside a time portal” Punzie hollered back

“We’ll find out.” Her fingers were once again fiddling with the knob on the watch and she once again adjusted it. A hole opened up in the portal. Instead of producing a portal, the watch had opened an exit.

We were shot out through it. I tumbled head over heals until there was a sharp pain on my head and the world went black.     

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

The first thing I was aware of was the pain. Throbbing jolts of agony pierced my head and I lay there for a minute, try to figured out why I had been knocked out, and where I was. I then remembered the Nightmares and bolted up, my staff at the ready. IT was a bad idea. The world swayed and the land seemed to move like the ocean. I collapsed back onto the ground and stayed there for a while, resting. After a while I heard the sound of movement.

“Hello?” a voice groaned. It was Jack.

“Over here” I said. I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Jack was a distance away from me. He seemed to be able to move around. He looked around at the sound of my voice and winced when he caught sight of me.

“Ooh, Breeze are you alright” He said “You look...awful”

“Thanks, Jack” I grumbled

“No! I meant-” I stood up

“I’m fine” I said and then promptly crashed to the ground again. “On second thought, maybe not”

“I think you hit your head on something.” He said “We need to get you to Punz. You stay here and I’ll go look for her and Red”

“No, wait. Don’t leave!” I called after him, but he had already strode off. I tried to follow, but I couldn’t even stand up without falling back over again.

I could hear him talking to someone and after I heard footsteps. Punz, Merida and  Jack were hurrying toward me. When Rapunzel say me she started running.

“Breeze are you alright! I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier! Where are you hurt?” It was almost like talking to Tooth.

“Punz, I’m alright” I said “My head’s sore, I think I hit it on something. Are you and Merida okay?”

“We’re fine” Merida said “We were knocked out last night after we were ejected from the portal. Jack just woke us up.”

Rapunzel wrapped a strand of  her hair around my hand and began to sing. Her hair began to glow again and I began to feel better. My vision cleared and my head stopped throbbing.

“Thanks Punz” I said “So, what do we do now?”

“I think we should stay here for a little while.” Merida said quietly “We could try and figure out what happened back there and we could rest for a while.” Punz nodded in agreement.

We all sat down in a circle.

“We shouldn’t have met those Nightmares.” Jack said darkly “He didn’t  know we were even going to travel back in time.”

“He might” I said “He’s recruited new followers. We’ve seen Gothel and Namtar, but who know’s whom else he’s managed to convince. There are a lot of  dark spirits out there and they have a wide variety of powers.”

“That still doesn't explain the Nightmares appearance!” Jack said frustrated “He shouldn’t be able to send them hundreds of years into the past.”

“There is someone who can though.” Merida said. We all looked at her. “Father Time. Remember North said that he’d gone missing. Maybe Pitch kidnaped him to stop MIM from choosing new guardians and when that didn’t stop us, he used Father Time to send the Nightmares after us!”

Jack looked sceptical “If he could do that couldn't he come here himself? Or just change history to prevent the Guardians from ever coming to be?”

“Time travel is very complex.” I said “North built this watch to specifically transport spirits. Father Time’s machines, whatever they are, are a lot more complicated. Father Time’s a good spirit and I can’t see him helping Pitch. My guess is that Pitch is trying to figure time travel out on his own and can’t seem to transport Spirits yet.” Jack and Meri stared at me.

“How do you know all this?” Jack demanded

“I asked Father Time ages ago” I said “A word to the wise-never ask him anything, he can go on talking forever.”

“Excuse me” Rapunzel said “Who’s North?” We all looked at her.

“Sorry, Punz we forgot to tell you.” I said sheepishly “North’s a Guardian. You might know him better as Santa Claus”

“Santa Claus” She said incredulously

“Yep. He is the protector of Wonder. he has naughty and nice tattoos, a Russian accent and he fights with twin swords”

“And there’s the Easter Kangaroo. He’s the Guardian of Hope” Jack chimes in

“Easter Bunny.” Merida said rolling her eyes “He’s not what you expect. He's really big, and he fights with boomerangs and exploding eggs.”  

“Exploding eggs?”

“Yeah” Jack said “I always wondered where they came from though”

“They’re the eggs that go bad before Easter”  I said. There was a silence.

“How do you know this exactly” Jack asked

“Don’t ask” I mumbled

 

“There’s Toothiana. She’s the Tooth Fairy. She collects kids teeth with help from the Baby Teeth. She says that they hold the most important memories of childhood” Merida said

“The Sandman’s a Guardian too.” I said

“Who’s the Sandman?” Rapunzel asked

“You’ve never heard of the Sandman!” Jack exclaimed. She shook her head. “He’s the reason you wake up with yellow sand in your eyes. The guy who makes sure kids have sweet dreams.”

She shrugged “Gothel never told me mutch. I mostly got my knowledge of the outside from the books I read and she made sure they were mostly bad things that I read.”

Sensing that this was still a sore topic for Punz, I directed it back to the Guardians. “Sandy’s the Guardian of Dreams. He’s a short yellow guy who never talks. I’ve never understood why though”

“I think it’s because he doesn't want to wake the kids up” Jack said “Either that or he just can’t, I haven’t been able to figure it out.”

“So is Sandy the opposite of Pitch?” Rapunzel asked “Is he the Spirit of Nightmares?”

“He’s not exactly his opposite.” I said “He’s the Spirit of Fear and Darkness. He can control them because they cause fear, but he’s not their master. They can turn on him if he’s feeling enough fear.”   

“Why does he even exist?” Punz asked “If MIM chooses all the spirits, why does are there Spirits like Pitch”

“He exists because of belief” Jack said. We turned to him “I had the same question after we fought Pitch 3 years ago and North explained it to me.”

“Didn’t he start that war because he wasn’t believed in” Merida asked

“It wasn’t him that kids and adults believed in.” Jack said “It was his center.” We still looked confused so he continued to explain. “You know how I wasn’t believed in for 300 years, and how Breeze and Punz still aren’t.”

“Yeah” I said

“Well, I was confused on how I was still very powerful for all that time” Jack said  “When the Guardians lost all but one believer they were extremely weak. But I had managed to  stay strong for centuries without one believer. North said it was because my center was believed in.  Fun wasn’t directly connected to Winter or to me and so kids still believed in fun. But the Guardians centers were strongly tied to their holidays their person. So when the kids stopped believing in them they stopped believing in their centers as well.”

“Like Sandy and Dreams” Merida said “When he stopped being believed in, so were dreams.”

“But wonder isn’t directly connected to Christmas or Santa” Meri said

“I think it is” I said remembering something  “Remember the song Its the Most ‘Wonder’-ful Time of the Year. People connect their centers with the Guardians person and holiday”   

“That also why losing Easter during the fight with Pitch hit Bunny so hard.” Jack said “Easter that year represented the hope that the Guardians still existed. Sandy was gone and so were dreams with Nightmares in their place. Kids teeth weren't getting collected fast enough.  When Easter never came, that hope was destroyed.”

“What happened to the Kangaroo” I asked

“He turned into a small cute bunny”  

I imaged that in my head and began to chuckle which soon spread to Meri and Punzel and grew into full out laughter.

“I’m trying to be serious here” Jack complained

“Imagine that” I giggled “Jack Frost, being serious. The world must really be in trouble”

“You guys are hilarious”

We stayed there all day talking and laughing untill the sun began to sink below the horizon.

“We’d better get going” I said “We might want to keep moving, incase Pitch figures out somehow, a way to track us. We going to get the Viking this time. His name’s Hiccup, right?”

We all moved to join hands. I turned to Merida. “Meri?” She seemed distant. “Meri are you alright?” She shook her head and seemed to snap out of it.

“I’m fine. Did you want something?”

“I just though that we might want to change up who wears the watch” I said “Pitch knows that I have it, we might want someone else to be wearing it if he targets me” She accepted the watch and we all joined hands.

“Here we go again” I groaned and we were off.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

We ended up inside a village/city something. There was a castle in the distance. I recognised the place as somewhere in Scotland.

“Hey Mer, do you recognize this place?” I asked “Merida?” We all turned to her. She was pale and was breathing hard.

“It can’t be” She whispered “Not again”  Without warning she took off in direction of the shoar. Even without her horse, Merida was extremely fast. Jack and I could have kept up with her, but Punzie had just barely gotten her wings and was still getting used to flying. Merida quickly sprinted out of sight.

“What’s with her” Jack said

“I dunno” I said “I’ve never seen her like that, but I’ve only known her for a short while. Has she ever acted like that before?”

He shook his head “We’d better catch up to her” We we did catch up to Merida she was standing on a small ledge looking over the beach, tears pouring silently down her face. Down on the beach there was a lot of people. Some I recognised as Vikings with their Helmets with horns. The others I guessed were Scots. It looked like a funeral was taking place. It was a Viking funeral and there was a boat sailing away.

“Mer, what’s wrong?” Punzie asked. She didn’t seen to hear Rapunzel or the rest of us.

“I can’t go through this” She choked out through her tears. “Not again” And as quickly as she had come she turned on her heel and fled.     

 

* * *

 

We all stared dumbfounded after her, completely bewildered. “Should we look for Hiccup or follow her” I asked

“Hiccup can wait” Jack said “We should find Merida” Which was easier said than done. We search for 2 hours before we finally found her. She was sitting in a circle made up of giant stone pillars, wiping tears from her eyes.

“Mer, are you alright.” Punz asked softly

“I’m fine” she said standing up “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t of run off like that. Some Spirit of Bravery, I am.”

“Hey, don’t say that” Jack said “Everyone has the right to cry sometimes”

“Yeah,” I agreed “Jack would know”

“Hey!”

Merida gave a little snort of laughter at that. “Thanks for coming after me”

“What are friends for” I said warmly “So, Mer, is something the matter.”

“It just brought back memories” She said “I died here, you know. I watched a friend of mine die. It was Hiccup actually”

“You knew Hiccup?” Punz asked

“Not well,” Merida admitted “I’d just met him before he died and he was trying to stop the war and-”

“Whoa, Merida you might want to start at the beginning.” I exclaimed

“The beginning?” She mused “We might want to sit down, this is a long story.” And so we did and she began to tell.

“It started back before I was born. My mother has told me the story of how the 4 clans came together. We were threatened by invaders from the sea: Vikings. At first the clans fought them separately, but when the Viking began to conquer our land my father brought the clans together, and they were defeated.”

“They didn’t dare come back. They couldn’t beat us when we were unighted because they were also facing problems on their own island: Dragon raids. That all changed, however in my 18th year.” She looked grave “They came for us again. They had solved the dragon problem and now were riding their backs instead. We had no chance against Dragon riders.

“Then Hiccup came. I was riding out in the woods, when two dragons swooped down on me. I fired on them, but they dodged it easily. I thought I was dead. The dragonriders introduced themselves as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third, heir to the Berk tribe, and his wife Astrid. They had come against Hiccup’s father: the Chief to try and restore peace. I was wary at first, but Hiccup and Astrid taught me something: that a person should be liked or hated based on their personality, not their clan. I had been taught that Viking were monsters to be feared and hated, but at the end of the day Astrid and Hiccup were better friends than some of the people back home.”

“I heard the trumpets sound that signified the start of battle. Hiccup, Astrid and I rushed back to my castle and it was being destroyed. Hiccup and Astrid landed and tried to stop the fight and I stood with them. Both sides would not cease and Hiccup’s father called him a traitor and someone from his side shot at me and hit. My father then retaliated and I saw the battle break out again. Hiccup and his Dragon were shot and then I died”

“Oh, Mer” I whispered “I’m so sorry”

“I was brought back as a spirit for the funeral.” She said quietly “ I walked around seeing people grieve over me and I couldn’t speak or interact with anyone at all.” She wiped a tear from her eyes again “My parents and Hiccup’s decided to make peace, as our dying wish. I just wish that peace didn’t have to come at the cost of our lives. Especially Hiccup’s. I know Astrid survived, I saw her at the funeral.”

“Wait,” I said “Weren't you made a Spirit 3 years ago”

“Yeah” She said “I watched the funeral and the peace treaty and then I was sent forward in time”

“Why” Rapunzel asked

“Same reason my memories were taken” Jack said “So she didn’t go crazy wondering what happened after she died.”

“Then why didn’t we see you down at the funeral” Punz asked

“Time paradox” I said “You can’t meet a past version of yourself”

I stood up “Shall we go get your friend, Mer”

“Lets” She agreed and we went in search of the funeral ship.


	11. Chapter 11

We went back to the small ledge where we had first found Merida. The Funeral had ended and the Vikings and Scots had gone. The odd thing was the boat in the distance. It was barely visible, but it was plainly recognizable as the same funeral boat, because of the tell-tale flames that were still adorning the ship.

“That must be it” I said “That ship should have burned shortly after we left to look for Mer”

Jack, Punz and I flew over, with Mer walking of the ice again, casting distrustful looks at Jack. When we got close to the boat, my suspicions were confirmed. The boat did have yellow, orange and blue flames licking the surface of the wood and sending sparks and smoke spiraling up in the air, but did no damage to the boat or it’s two covered occupants.  

“Uh, guys” Jack called “I’m not going to be able to reach the boat. Fire and Ice don’t mix that well. I can’t make the ice go any further either or else it will melt.”   
“Go on without us” Mer said “I’m not going to be able to reach it  without Jack’s Ice”

Punz and I looked at each other. I had a feeling of foreboding. It wasn’t that I was worried about if the Nightmares, or that I was doubting Jack or Merida’s ability to protect themselves. It was that those too had a natural talent of getting on each other’s nerves and leaving them by themselves did not seem like the best of ideas. We had limited options though so, Punz and I agreed.

We got to the ship and landed.

“How come the fire doesn't hurt me” Punz asked. I shrugged

“Maybe you're resilient because fire is a source of light. I’m resilient ‘cause I can control fire to a certain extent. Or maybe it’s cause this fire won’t hurt anything on this ship.”   It was after sundown now, and the flickering flames cast eerie shadows around the boat. I uncovered one of the figures and Punz uncovered the other.

The figure that I uncovered was a beautiful black dragon. A Night Fury. Even when dragons still lived, it was rare to come across one of these. The Dragon had a saddle on and had an injured tail that had replaced by a [prosthetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosthesis).

Punz had uncovered a young man in his 20’s-Hiccup. He had a peg leg and had obviously been shot by an arrow or two.

“What do we do now” Rapunzel whispered

“Umm…” I was saved from answering as a concentrated beam of moonlight shone down upon Hiccup and the dragon. It raised them up in the air and their wounds began to heal. Not only the wounds that had caused their death, but also Hiccups missing leg and the Night Fury’s injured tail. They both opened their eyes and Hiccup began to cough. The voice began to speak again.

“Welcome Hiccup, Dragonmaster. Spirit of Fall, Guardian of Peace. May your presence inspire everlasting peace among all Spirits”

Hiccup and the Dragon were set down and the moonlight faded as did the fire, leaving us in almost complete darkness.

“Hey Punz, could you give us some light”

“How do I do that?”

“I dunno. Just concentrate on bringing light” There was a blinding flash of light that was so intense that I could still see it even when my eyes were closed.

“Punz!”

“Sorry” She cried. The light dimmed and I opened my eyes. Punz was holding a ball of light in cupped hands looking sheepish. “That was a little much, wasn’t it”

“Just a little” I agreed. A sudden voice made us jump.

“Not to be rude, but who are you” It was Hiccup

“Oh, sorry.” I said “I’m Breeze Fever, Spirit of Summer. This is Rapunzel of Corona, Spirit of light and healing. You’re the new Spirit of Fall”

“What’s a Spirit” He asked warily

“A Spirit is an immortal being, that is given the job on watching over something. I’m the Summer Spirit, so I oversee Summer.”

“And I’m a Spirit?”

“Yeah, The Man in the Moon Chose you”

“But I’m mortal” He said “I died actually”

“All Spirits were mortal at some point” I said “Many are chosen after they die, so their absence doesn’t cause any trouble. He was shaking his head.

“No-nope, this isn’t happening. This is all some sort of crazy dream”

“This isn’t a dream Hiccup”

“Of course it is-wait how...how do you know my name?”

“Merida told me. Plus MIM just said it”

“You know Merida?”

I grinned “‘course I do. She’s a Spirit too. She’s-” I was cut off by a splash. We all turned and saw that in the distance the ice beneath Merida’s feet had crumpled. She was gripping the edge on the ice, with one hand and was loading her bow with the other. Jack was hovering with his staff at the ready.

“She’s over there with Jack Frost.” I finished with a sigh “I think we’d better go and separate those two before they kill each other.”


	12. Chapter 12

I jumped into the air and quickly sped off toward the two. As calmly as I had spoken, I knew that we had to stop. I saw Punz out of the corner of my eye, leave the boat as well. When I got close I landed on the ice. I pulled Merida out of the water and grabbed her bow. I then quickly flew into the air, before I accidentally melted the ice. Punz had blinded Jack and taken his staff.

“Hey!”

“Give it back”

“She started it”

“Did not!”

“Did too, Red”

“You froze my hair so it would stand on end, Frosty”  

“It was a joke! You started shooting arrows at me”

“You gave me a dunking!”

“You deserved it”

“I did not!”  

“Guys, give it a rest, will you. We don’t-” I was interrupted as an enormous dragon swooped over us and landed on the bridge of ice. Hiccup had followed us over.

“Hiccup!” Merida said startled “You’re here. Come and help me impale this winter demon”

“Winter demon” Jack said offended “Winter demon!”

“Shut up, both of you!” Rapunzel yelled. We all looked at her. She flushed “I mean, we have bigger problems, right now”

“She’s right.” I said “We need to hurry”

“This is insane” Hiccup said “Spirits, Fairies, Jack Frost, what else is real? The monsters that hide under kid’s beds.” We all looked at him and he gaped at us.

“But-but that’s not possible. I was kidding.”

“Hic, this is real” Merida said “We’re real. You and I died. We’re Spirits now. We’re Guardian’s”

“What is a Guardian, exactly” He asked

“A Guardian is a Spirit, chosen by MIM, to protect an aspect of Childhood. My center is Laughter, so that’s what I protect. Jack’s center is fun, Merida’s is Bravery, Rapunzel’s is joy and your’s is peace.”

“Is that all a Guardian does?”

“No” I said “We also protect kids from…” I trailed off as something in the distance caught my attention. Glowing yellow dots of light were floating over the surface of the water. They were coming nearer and as they did they increased in size. And then I realize they weren't orbs. They were eyes. Great, just great.

“Not again” Jack complained “How does he keep finding us?”

“Uhh...guys” Hiccup said nervously “What do Guardians protect kids from? And what are you-What are those things?” The Nightmares had come into visual range and their silhouette was visible from what little light their eyes put out.

“Those are Nightmares” Merida said “They’re Pitch Black’s Followers. Pitch Black is the Spirit of  fear and Darkness. That is what we protect children from.” As they drew closer, the Night Fury barred his teeth and growled.

“We all need to join hands” I said urgently “We can travel through time, and we really need to get out of here.”

He shook his head in disbelief and started to dismount, but then stopped.

“What about Toothless?” Toothless? I wasn’t sure who he was talking about, until I remembered his dragon. Odd name, for a creature with lots of very sharp teeth.

“I dunno, just stay on his back, and it should work” I said. It was a little late though, the Nightmares had reached us. I readied my staff and saw and arrow fly by my head and hit a black horse. It was all very unnecessary as there was another blinding flash of light, that lasted for a minute before finally fading. When I could see again(Which wasn’t for another good 5 minutes after), I saw the very few scattered remains of the pack of Nightmares.

“Punz...that was amazing” I said “How did you do that” To my surprise she looked frustrated.

“I was trying to make a weapon, like a sword or frying pan.”  Frying pan? That was a little weird. “I couldn’t control it. It just burst out”

“Well, I certainly glad you did what you did” Merida said “You’ll learn to control it over time.”

“Yeah, it took me forever to control my ice powers” Jack said “I kept causing huge blizzards by accident. One time it happened on Easter Sunday and the Kangaroo got really mad and started yelling at me. He would believe that it was just an accident and so I got mad and that just made the storm worse.”

She looked thoughtful “My cousin said something similar. She said that her ice powers were also connected to her emotions, and whenever she lost control, her powers would act up”

“Your cousin had ice powers?”

“Hey guys, I hate to interrupt.” I said “but we really do need to go. Pitch could send more Nightmares after us, and if he does we want to be as far away from here as possible.”

We all joined hands, with Hiccup on Toothless’s back. Merida set the watch and we were off.   

* * *

 

We landed and immediately both Hiccup and Jack began to throw up. It seemed as though we had forgotten to inform Hiccup of the joys of time travel. Toothless seemed fine though.

“Sorry, Hiccup” I said wincing “Time travel can be kind of nauseating on your first ride.”

“No, really” Hiccup said

“You get used to it.” I said ignoring his sarcasm “Except, if your Jack, who doesn’t seem to have gotten over it even after 4 times.” Jack glared at me.

“Where are we?” Rapunzel whispered. The others looked around to see what she what she was talking about and gasped as they saw the landscape. We were in the remains of a once beautiful valley. Smog covered most of the sky and there was miles and miles of land covered in the dead stumps of trees. The river ran black with gunk, instead of it’s crystal clear blue. I didn’t gasp however, I knew exactly what had happened.

It did look better than it had the last time I was here. The beginnings of grass were growing and maybe 20- 30 small truffula, about as tall as my shoulders, were growing.

“What happened here?” Merida whispered  

“That” I said “is an interesting question and is a very sad tale” They all turned to me.

“You know what happened” Jack asked

 

“I was there” I said “Before I became a Spirit, of course. I could tell you, if you guys want?”

“Please do” Punz said and the others agreed. We all sat down and I began

“It all started a long time ago….”

“Can it start not so long ago?” Jack interrupted. I glared at him

“Do you want to hear the story”

“Yes!”

“Then it all started a long, long time ago…

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

This story begins with two best friends. One, a young boy named Once-ler, whose only want was his family’s love. The other was a young girl named Breanna, called Breeze, who had not a friend in the world. Fate had them meet at a young age and from that moment onward they were inseparable.

The Once-ler tolerated Breanna’s mischievousness and even joined her in the pranks she pulled.(Though he regretted it later) Breeze listened to all of the Once-ler’s invention ideas, even the ones that were ludacris.

On his 12 birthday, Breanna bought Once-ler a guitar, second hand, and it was something she regretted at times. He had always loved music and was ecstatic at receiving it. He couldn't afford lessons so he taught himself.(It took him three years of playing, before he could play in front of Breeze without her putting earmuffs of.)

Once had the idea first. He wanted to make something that was something that everyone needed. I came up with the name: Thneed, from the words THings NEEDed. It was a project that both of us worked on, but it was and would always be The Once-ler’s. It was finally completed at the end of senior year of high school and Once and I decided to leave our homes and sell the Thneed. We both were very poor and had no car, only Melvin, Once’s mule, and a wagon.  I waited in the wagon as Once said goodbye to his family.

“Well, here I go, Mom” He said “I’m off to change to world with my Thneed. I’m actually doing it!”

“Now, remember, Oncie ” Isabella(Once-ler’s mom) said “If somehow your invention turns out to be a failure instead of a success...Well that wouldn't surprise me at all” She broke into laughter that spread to the rest of his family. Did I mention I hated her. I hated all of them, but her most of all.

“Hey nice wheel’s” Brett(or was it Chett? I could never tell them apart) said and punched Once in the arm. “Burn” Mevin then kicked him.

“Yeah” Once said rolling his eyes “Burn. Well I’m going to prove you all wrong. Come on, Melvin” He shook the reins and we left in search of the perfect material for the Thneed. We searched everywhere. I keep saying that we could just use regular material like cotton or wool, but he insisted that it needed to be made out of something special.   

Four weeks later, we had still had absolutely no success. The wagon was rolling along, I was staring aimlessly in the distance and Once was playing his guitar.

“Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na Op-bop-bop-da-bop-doh. Going off to make a thneed.

“I've got a cramp in my back, and another cramp in my right rump cheek… Melvin, you and I will have separate grandchildren and we will say to them-Breeze, look I'm playing my guitar upside down.”

I sighed and glanced over at him. He had the guitar on the back of his head and was strumming it.

“Don't look at me like that, its something to do. Ahem, oh wait I forgot the words...na-na-na-naaaaaaa”

“You ever think REALLLLLLY hard about boredom?” I said. He stopped singing randomly, which was a relief, until he began to strum.

“Is that annoying?”He strummed again

“Is that annoying...?” and again

“Is this annoying?” and again. Thankfully something in the sky caught his attention and stopped and began to sing

“Look its some circling birds, I bet you that they're going to eat our corpses. And then the worms will crawl out of the ground. And then some other little critter is going to make furniture out of our bones...and sit on it...and have lovely dinners...ANNND THIS WHOLE THING WILL BE A DISASTER NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA....HAAAAANANANANANANANANANAAAAA” This went on for a while before he trailed in silence and I was able to get some sleep.

* * *

 

I awoke at the sound of Melvin’s bray. I stretched, yawned, blinked,and then gasped. The first word that came to mind was Paradise. It was a beautiful valley, with a crystal blue river and thousands, if not millions, of orange, pink and yellow truffula trees.

“Hey, Once” I whispered and prodded his shoulder. He didn’t move. “Once!” Still no response. I punched him in the shoulder “Once-ler!”

He awoke with a start. “Oh!” He sat up “We’re gunna be there soon. It’s like-Whoa” He gasped, took in the sight and we both got down from the wagon.  “This is...the most beautiful place...that I have ever seen”

We began to walk, and were soon greeted by three Humming Fish. They sang for us before disappearing into the river. Once pulled out his guitar and began to sing.

“This is it!” He sang “This is the Place. These Truffula trees are just what I needed. I’m gonna chop one down and make my thneed” He held the last word for a couple seconds. “But first!” He threw his guitar up in the air, unintentionally knocking a Barbaloot high in to the air. “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na-na-Now you!” I rolled my eyes at his silliness, but smiled and joined in with the group of forest animals that had gathered around us.

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na”

“That’s great!” We began to move forward towards a clearing and I beckoned Melvin forward.

“La-la-lo-lo-lo-la, ha-ha-hahaha, uba-huba-huba-huba-ho-howhow” Once opened the back of the wagon and I grabbed a spoon and began to sing, pretending it was a microphone.

“So, now our friendship can begin, hand in hand and wing and fin-”

“-There’s nothing you and I can’t do, so lets all make our dreams come true Yodleo, Yodleo” He lapsed into yodeling and I whistled along. We began to unload the wagon, tossing things out as we went. I heard Once’s yodeling falter and I turned to see what had caused it. The Barbaloots, fish and Swans were all glaring at us. One bird was smaking a stick against it’s wing.

“Hey, guys” Once said nervously “Come on, where’s my back up chorus?” They bared their teeth at us.

“What?” I said. Thinking quickly, Once grabbed something from the wagon to help protect us from the cute little forest animals of doom. The bad news was he grabbed two of the marshmallow bags he had brought with us. A Barbaloot jumped at us and it’s claws tore the bag opened, showering marshmallows down of us all. The animals loved them and soon completely forgot about us.

Once put on his green gloves, grabbed his axe and proceeded to chop down a tree. I grabbed my tent and went a distance to put it up. I finished and when I returned to Once, I saw the strangest thing happening.

Once had set up his tent/house thing(Another one on his inventions) and was playing ring around the tent with a small furry animal that had a huge yellow mustache. It was kicking up the steaks that held his tent up and Once was hammering them back in.

“Time for you to go, Beanpole” It said

“Pull them right out, just gonna put the right back in” Once said to the creature “I can do this all day” This went on for a while, until Once grabbed a small Barbaloot instead of the steak.

“Whoa, stop right there, stop it!” The creature said “So, you’d hammer one of nature's innocent creatures”

“What! No, I’d never hurt this little guy” Once said “You on the other hand, I would gladly pound you and your mustache into the ground!”

I couldn’t help it any more. I burst out laughing at this bizarre scene. They both looked over at me as I laughed helplessly.   

“Who are you” The creature grunted. Once stood up

“This is my best friend Breanna, who prefers to go by Breeze. Breeze this is the Lorax.”

“What’s a Lorax” The Lorax looked shocked

“Are you telling me that neither of you have heard of me!”  I shook my head. “Guardian of the forest, I speak for the trees. Is any of this ringing a bell?”

“Nope,sorry” I said “Can I ask why you were trying to kick Once out.”

“He was chopping down the Tree’s” The Lorax said “And he tried to hurt Pipsqueak”

“I chopped down one tree” Once said “One, as in singular. And I told you I’d never hurt Pipsqueak, that was an accident. But you, as I said before, I would gladly pound you and your mustache into the ground!”

“Behold” Mustache (as I had decided to call him) said to the forest critters “The intruders and their violent ways. Shame of you. For Shame” This seemed to infuriate Once and he got right up in  Mustache’s face shaking his finger.

“You know what, that’s it! You listen to me, you furry meatloaf! I’m going to chop down as many trees as I need, ok. News flash. Not going anywhere!” We walked to the door of his tent. “End of story!” He slammed the door.

“Then you leave me no choice” I jumped and Once screamed like a girl. Mustache had somehow gotten behind the door. “If you two aren't gone by the time the sun sets in this valley, all the forces of nature will be unleashed upon you and curse you until the end of your days. You have been warned.” Which was all very nice and dramatic and actually might have worked in scaring us away, until he tried to reach the door handle and couldn’t. We watched him struggle for a second, until I opened it for him.

“Thank’s”

“Yeah, ok,” I said skeptically

“ You have been warned” He said and then left. The rest of the day went very well. Once and I worked on the Thneed and finally finished it by sundown. We said goodnight and I went back to my tent for bed. I changed into pajamas and turned off the light. It wasn’t the end of the day though. There was a whole lot of trouble for both Once and I tonight.

  
  



	14. Chapter 14

I was peacefully sleeping until an urgent voice roused me.

“Breeze! Hey Breeze wake up! Beanpole’s in trouble”

I sprang up at the sudden noise, and then promptly fell out on bed. “Huh, what’s goin’ on” I said sleepily. The Lorax had lifted himself on to the ledge on my open window.

“Beanpole’s in trouble! Come on, he’s down by the river!” He then ran off in the direction of the river that we had noticed earlier. I stumbled around for a second, before grabbing a jacket and hurrying out. My mind was still clouded by sleep, so I didn’t question why the Lorax of people was trying to save Once, or why Once was down by the river in the middle of the night.

I go the river and was completely bewildered at what I saw. Once-ler’s bed was floating him down the river. He was still snoring, completely oblivious to his predicament.

Mustache was running down the bank of the river trying to keep up with the bed. “Hey Beanpole, wake up!” It did little good, Once’s only reaction was to grab the poor Pipsqueak, who had somehow managed to accompany him, and cuddle him like a teddy bear.

I was now jogging to keep up with Mustache and then bed. I began to heard a distant roar and a had a sinking feeling.

“Oh, that’s bad” Mustache said as he caught wind of the noise too.

“No really” I muttered. Thankfully at that moment Pip crawled to the end of the bed and flipped it over twice, dunking them both into the frigid river water. This finally woke him up, and he coughed and spluttered.

“What’s happening! Where am I?”

“Hey,” I called “We have trouble, and it’s coming up fast!” Once looked ahead of him and saw river rapids, with lots and lots of sharp rocks jutting up.

“What! We’re in a river!” Captain Obvious strikes again. They careened around the rocks narrowly missing being smashed to bits.

Mustache and I kept running, trying to find a way to get them out of there. As we ran I saw that the rapids ended in a waterfall. Great, this just got better and better.

“Up there!” Mustache shouted. He pointed to a small cliff right next to the drop. We both raced up there and pushed a heavy rock over. It hit the bed, catapulting Once and Pip high in to the air and the landed safely on the grass. Pip got up and walked away, perfectly fine. Once, however didn’t move. I ran over to him and put my ear to his chest.

“His heart’s stopped” I said hysteria rising in my voice “He’s dead, He’s-”

“Out of the way” Mustache ordered. He grabbed two Barbaloot’s, and rubbed them together, creating a static charge. “CLEAR!” He yelled and he placed the on One's chest. The charge jolted through him and he sat up.

“Oh,” He shouted and started to laugh “I was heading into the light and you pulled me back and here I am” He pulled Mustache into a hug. “You saved my life!”

“Well, you know, it’s not that big ‘a deal”

“It is a big deal, I almost went over that waterfall, wait…”

“How did your bed get in the water?” I said

“Uh, well about that” Mustache said nervously “Acctuly…Ipuyourbedinthewater.” Once dropped him.

“I didn’t mean you any harm” He said, but we turned to leave. “We just wanted to calmly float you away.” We stopped but still didn’t face him. “Look, everyone here needs the tree’s. And you two are cutting ‘em down. So, we have a problem” Once sighed and we both turned back to face them.

“Ok, look. I hereby swear that I will never chop down another tree. I promise”

“I promise as well” I said

“Thank you” Mustache said in relief “But I’m gonna keep my eye on you two.”

“Good,” Once said “We have kind of a big day tomorrow”

“So, we both are going to get some sleep” I finished and we both turned to leave. We walked a few paces in the direction of our tents,and then Once turned around.

“Right after I find my bed”

 

* * *

 

I was woken early the next morning by two yells, one high pitched and the other lower pitched. The high pitched one had to be Once’s, but I couldn’t tell to whom the other belonged to. I dressed quickly and hurried over to Once-ler’s tent. I went in and almost burst out laughing again. It had been taken over by the forest animals. They were every where, from the shelves to hanging from the lights. Once had dressed and was towering over the Lorax apparently engaged in an argument.

“...And I said I wouldn't chop down any more trees!”

“And I said I was gunna keep an eye on you” The Lorax said “I’m starving, what’s for breakfast?” He pulled open the fridge, only to find that it too had been taken over. A fat Barbaloot in particular was slowly shoving sticks of butter in it’s mouth.

“Breakfast is overrated.” Mustache said nervously and shut the door. Once shot me a look that said ‘Can you believe this guy’.

I decided to intervene before things got any further. “Hey Once, we’ve got work to do remember. We need to leave soon”

“You’re leaving!”

“Don’t look so excited, we’re only going into town” I said

“Yep, we’re going to sell our thneed” Once said holding it up.

“You cut down one of my trees, to make that piece of garbage.” Mustache said incredulously. Once was offended and then proceeded to explain what the thneed could do. He ended of saying that the Thneed was super absorbent, soaked up some water to prove his point and then put it on Mustache’s head as a hat.

“Course, you probably want to wring it out first.” He said. Mustache took it off and threw it at him.

“Go ‘head, knock yourself out.” Mustache said “But nobody’s going to buy that thing”

“Good to know” I said “Fortunately, you’re not the target market...weirdo” Once grabbed his guitar.

“You’re bringing a guitar”

“Unfortunately” I muttered under my breath.

“Oh yeah, I got a little jingle. Gunna blow some minds, Gunna sell some thneeds!...Yeah” And we left for town. We didn't sell it the first few days though. Or the first week. Or the second week. Or the third. And one day Once had had enough.

“That’s it!” he said “I quit” He through his thneed away and stormed off. I ran to catch up with him.

“Once-”

“Not now” he said through gritted teeth. “Can you just leave me alone...please” He strode off in the opposite direction of our tents. I led Melvin back home and Mustache greeted us as we walked up.

Hey, where’s your thneed, did you sell it”

“No” I said flatly. I let Melvin free from the wagon and went over to the Lorax. “It’s ahead of it’s time, I guess.”

“Well, you gave it your best shot. Where’s Beanpole. Is he sulking?”  

“Yeah, pretty much” I said  

“Sit down, we’ll deal you in” He was sitting playing cards with a Barbaloot, Humming fish, and Swami swan.

“Ok,” I said “What are we playing”

“I’m playing poker, he’s playing go-fish, and I think he’s hungry.” The Swami swan squawked and ate one of the Humming fish’s cards.

After that confusing game of cards I headed back to the house. As I walked I caughted the distant strains of music and I stopped to listen.

“Nobody needs a Thneed.

Stupid thing no one will ever need.

The Thneed is dumb, the Thneed is lame

Who’s the idiot who came up with that name” I sighed and headed into the house.

  
  



	15. Chapter 15

Once finally calmed down and came back to the house. I convinced him to make pancakes, because I knew it would make him feel better.(and because he made thee best pancakes ever) Soon after we began to cook, Mustache and a bunch of the other forest critters showed up. We both rolled our eyes but didn’t say anything.

“Flip-ity-do” Once said as he cooked “Pankcan-de-pancake” He flipped 5 of them up in the air and I caught them. “Who’s up for 9ths”

“Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!” It was the fat Barbaloot. Mustache sat up.

“All right, pass ‘em over”

“Yeah, see-” Once started to say but stopped as the tent began to shake “W-w-what’s go-going on?”

We all ran outside to see a giant mob.

“That’s alot of people” Once said. He does a wonderful impression of Captain Obvious. To our great surprise, it was not an angry mob and they began to sing.

“Everybody needs a thneed! A fine thing that all people need! The thneed is good, the thneed is great, Let's hope we're not too late!”

“It's a super trendy hat,”

“It's a tightrope for an acrobat,”

“A net for catching butterflies,”

“A thing we use for EXERCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISE!”

“Everybody needs a thneed, (A THNEED!) A fine thing that all people need, (WE NEED!) Everybody needs a thneed! (ahhhhhh ahhhhh) We want the thneed, (ahhhhh ahhhhhh) We need the thneed,(ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh) We need a thneeeeeeeeeeeeed!”

“OH YEAH” Once yelled “We’re in business baby” He got on the phone and dialed. “Mom? Hey, It’s me! I told you I was going to be a success. You need to bring the whole family here right now. We’re gonna be rich!”

I gave him a look. “What” he said “We’re going to need all the help we can get. Don’t worry”  

I was worried.

* * *

 

3 days later, an RV roared through the valley, knocking aside trees and animals alike. I stopped, the door slid open and someone stepped out.

“What a dump”

“Hey, Aunt Grizelda” Once called. The twins ran out.

“Hey, Chet go long.” Brett said and threw some poor Barbaloot like a football. Chet raced to catch it and promptly slammed into a tree.

“Ha ha. He totally ran into that tree.” Brett said and punched Once in the arm. Then my least favorite person stepped out.

“Oncie, is that you?”

“Mom!”

“There he is. My big suddenly successful son.” She kissed him of the cheek. “We always knew you’d make it, Oncie” Liar

“Right” she said out of the corner of her mouth.

“Hey, I love this guy.” said Once-ler’s uncle Ubb

“But you always said I wouldn’t amount to anything, remember”

“Oh hush your mouth, we just trying to motivate you” Did I mention how much I hated this woman.

“I’m really glad you clarified that because it really hurt my feelings for a very long time.”

To my horror she came over and hugged me too. “Oh Breeze, I’m so glad you were here for Oncie”

Right. And all those time you kept telling Once to stay away from me was just you trying to strengthen our friendship, huh. She is such a liar.

“So you’re all here and you all work for us and that’s cool” Once said “So...lets get to work.”

“Brett Chet, set up the RV-would you stop throwing that bear?” Isabell ordered. The twins ran and pushed a big red button on the side of the vehicle. It expanded into a full sized house(Another of Once’s great inventions). This seemed to irritate Mustache though and he intervened.

“Whoa, whoa,whoa,whoa. Time out, back up, don’t move an inch. Nobody’s moving in here, you gotta go, goodbye.”

“So who invited the giant furry peanut” Aunt Grizelda said

“You calling me a peanut, I’ll go right up your nose.” They moved toward each other, their fists raised  As much as I disliked Grizelda, I spoke.

“Hey whoa, you wouldn’t hit a woman, would you” He turned to me stunned

“That’s a woman!”

“Whoa hey, everyone cool it” Once said “Lets not get off of the wrong foot here. Um, Family this is our friend-”

“Acquaintance”

“Yeah, acquaintance, very good acquaintance, The Lorax. He speaks for the tree’s”

“That’s right and on behalf of the tree’s-GET OUT!” They all gasped

“Will you just-Be nice” Once said to Mustache. He turned to talk privately “This is my family and we’re gonna need their help if our company’s gonna get bigger.”

“You need their help” I said quietly “I don’t” He gave me a look, but didn’t press the issue.

“Bigger?” Mustache questioned

“Yeah, this isn’t some rinky-dink operation anymore. I got plans! Big place. A vision of a world filled with Thneeds. It’s gonna be huge!”

“Which way does a tree fall” Mustache asked. Well, that was random.

“Uhh...Down” I said

“A tree falls the way it leans” He said “Be careful which way you lean.” With that he turned and left us to ponder that statement.

* * *

 

Later that day, Once and I ran into our first problem. We were both finishing up a ground plan of Thneeds Inc, when Isabell poked her uninvited head through the open window.

“Oncie” she said “we’ve got us a little problem”  

“Problem?”

“Uh-huh, you see, we aren't making Thneeds fast enough.”

“Harvesting the tuffs takes too long.” Uncle Ubb called as he pushed a cart full of tufts.

“Well, what else can we do?”

“Well,” She said “And this just came to me... We could always start chopping down the trees”

“What” I said

“Now you thinking. That would speed things up” Ubb called

“But-”

“No buts Oncie. You're running a business now. You have to do whats best for the company and your Momma”

“Well, I guess it couldn’t hurt to cut down a few trees” He said

“What!” I said again but was ignored as Isabel said “You make me so proud Oncie” and hugged him.

Once she was gone, I turned to him, furious. “Once-ler-”

“I know what you're gonna say. But she’s right we have to think about the company.” When I continued to look angry he said “I’ll make sure Brett and Chet and the rest are careful about how many tree’s they cut down. We won’t cut them all down.”

“Alright” I said reluctantly “As long as we make sure we regulate it”

“Of course,” Once said “Beside, how bad could this possibly be.”

 

 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, life got in the way:( Anyway I wrote this chapter while lisening to the song 'The Once-ler' by Solving for X. It's an awesome song and I sugest that you lisen to it while reading this chapter

At first Once kept his promise. He made sure that we regulated the tree’s chopping and that there were new ones planted. However as time went on the Thneed grew more and more popular. His family, Isabell in particular, encouraged him to upgrade to a factory. I didn’t think it was a good idea, but he seldom got encouragement from his family and so he listened to them. The factory just made a whole new set of problems.

He couldn’t follow up on the regulation of the tree’s as much anymore and neither could I because of all the work that we had to do and eventually all regulation stopped. As the Thneeds grew ever more popular, so did the profit that they brought in. And as that grew, Once began to change. He cared less and less about the forest and more and more about gaining even more money. He bought a new green suit and insisted that I buy one too, and reluctantly I did though mine was blue. He also got a brand new guitar, and as much as his old one annoyed me at times, I felt hurt that he had tossed aside the second hand gift that I had given him.

To my dismay, more and more tree’s were being felled and one day Once came to me with a new gadget called ‘The Super Axe Hacker’ to hurry along the production of Thneeds. I was done with Thneeds Inc at that point and quit, leaving the company to the sole ownership of Once. He protested, but I was firm and would not change my mind. He insisted that I still stay and I did, if only to try and persuade Once to stop the destruction. He was just as stubborn as I and wouldn’t listen.

Each day I gazed out of my window and each day there were more and more stumps; the tombstones for fallen trees. The sky got darker with every passing month, as smoggy clouds filled the sky. The river ran thick and black with the shlop that was being thrown in there. Mustache appearances grew more and more infrequent as he seemed to realize, as I did one day, that nothing was going to change. And that was the day that I decided to leave.

I packed my suitcase with what belonging that I wanted to take, leaving behind the blue suit that I loathed so much. I knocked on the Once-ler’s office door to say good-bye.

“Enter” I heard him say and I opened the door. He looked up and his face brightened. “Breeze, how are you? I haven't seen you in forever!” I had no patience for small chat and got the point.

“I’m leaving” I said bluntly. He started laughing until he saw that I was very serious.

“You’re really leaving!” I nodded “But why! This was always our dream, Breeze. We’ve got everything we’ve always wanted.”

“Once-ler, my dream was to build a successful career with my best friend and to be happy.” I said wearily “I won’t find that here anymore. I quit five months ago”

“But I’m you best friend. I’m not going anywhere.”

“No, Once-ler.” I said sadly “You are no longer my best friend ‘Once’. You’ve changed to much and I haven’t. We’ve grown apart. It’s time we went our separate ways” I pulled something from my pocket and put in his hand, curling his fingers around it. “This is my last gift to you. Use it carefully.” I turned to leave and he made one last plea.

“Breeze, please stay” he said “For me...please.”

“I’m sorry, Once-ler.” I said “I wish I could, but you’re no longer the person I once called my friend.” I paused “And you’re not the man I fell in love with” I hesitated for a second and then stood up on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Good-bye, Once-ler” I said and the turned before he could see the tears that were silently making their way down my face.

I stepped out into the smog filled air then turned back for one last glance at the factory. The last I saw of Once, was his face in his office, his hand raised of farewell, tears coursing down his face as well.

I never saw him again.   

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

There was a silence for a long while after I finished. Punz was wiping tears from her eye as was I. Merida, being the tough girl that she is, didn't cry, but her face was pale and seemed unable to speak. Hiccup was silent and thoughtful. Even Jack was being serious for once, he was frowning and was looking off in the distance.

“I’m so sorry” Punz whispered, finally breaking the silence.

“It’s alright, Punz” I said “I came to terms with it a long time ago”

“How come he’s being made a Guardian” Jack said abruptly “He caused so much damage, how come he’s being made Spirit of Spring?”

“MIM chooses Spirits with important centers for Guardians.” I said quietly “We need to trust his judgment. And Spring is the season where everything is brought back to life. He’s done that very well here. He’s finally put my last gift to use.”

“What was your last gift” Merida asked

“One of the last truffula seeds. I knew that if I didn’t save one then, It would be too late after everything had been destroyed and the valley would have had no hope at all of recovering.”  I stood up “We need to get going”

“Are you sure you want to come with us” Hiccup asked “You could stay here”

“Thanks Hiccup, but I’m going to have to face him sometime” I said “I don’t think we should split up anyway.” I pointed to a crooked white building in the distance. “That way.”

We trekked there in silence which suited me fine. I was so nervous that I felt if I opened my mouth again I was going to vomit. We reached to building and in the front by a broken down gate, was a lamp post with a sign that read ‘The Street of the Lifted Lorax’.

We walked up to front door and on it was a lopsided label that had ‘The Once-ler in brass letters written on it. I steeled my nerves, raised my hand and rang the doorbell. Immediately the door flipped around horizontally and of it was a contraption made up of a hammer, string and scissors. The scissors cut the string, which made the hammer push down on the loose floorboard I was of, tossing me up in the air.

“What the-” I yelled but before I could reacted a metal claw grabbed me by the ankle. “Ahh!” This caused Jack, Merida and Hiccup to burst into laughter and even Punz was fighting a smile. “Guys this isn’t funny”  

I was just about ready to blast the stupid claw to bits with my staff when a voice stopped me cold.

“Breeze?”

I turned toward the voice that was both familiar and not at the same time time. There was a window up at the level that I was at, that had once been boarded up. In that window stood an unfamiliar old man, balding with a huge mustache. But I knew those blue eyes.

People say that eyes are windows to the soul, and reflected in his I could see a man, 50 years younger with a head of black hair, a smile on his face, and a carefree air about him. I smiled

“Hello, Once” I said  

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

His mouth was hanging open, his eyes were shiny and wet and he seemed unable to speak.

“How….” he said weakly “How…”

“It’s a long story” I said “We need to talk to you” Once seemed confused and that seemed to restore his power of speech.

“We?” he said “Who else is with you?”

“Everyone down there” I said “Jack and Merida and…” I trailed off “You don’t see them, do you?”

His look of confusion was quickly being replaced by suspicion “Is this another trick on yours?”

“Not this time” I said “I promise” He still looked sceptical, so I changed tactics “I really do need to talk to you.”

“How are you still young.” Once asked “It’s been 46 years.”

“As I said, it’s a long story. That’s not the only strange thing. Could you…” I gestured to the claw and he understood.

“Oh, sorry” He reeled to claw to the ground and let my ankle go.  

“Thanks” I said “Can you come down please” We heard alot of banging and clunking before the door opened and he stepped out. Once was stooped with age and he still wore a Thneed as a scarf. We all sat in a circle on the grass.

“So…” I said “Where to begin?”

“The beginning might be a good start.” He said dryly “And I would like to know who these invisible friends of yours are.”

“Right” I said “Well, To your right is Jack Frost, he’s the Spirit of Winter and the Guardian of Fun-don’t interrupt, I explain everything. To your right is Rapunzel,  Spirit of Light and Healing and the Guardian of Joy. On my right is Merida Dunbroch,  Spirit of Magic and the Guardian of Braveryand on my left is Hiccup, Spirit of Fall and Guardian of Peace.” I took a breath and quickly went on, for he was showing every sign of wanting to interrupt again.  

“A Spirit is an immortal person, who is charged with watching over specific things. I am the Spirit of Summer and so I over see it.”

“You are mortal, though” Once said

“I was,” I said “I was turned into a Spirit after I died.”

“You died?”  
“I don’t want to talk about it” I said tightly. There was a moment of awkward silence before Once spoke again.

“So, how come I can see you, but not the other’s”

“People can only see Spirits if they believe in them.” I said “It’s where most of our power comes from.”

“So how come he can see you” Jack interjected

“Yeah, that is odd” I said

“What’s odd” Once asked

“Oh, sorry, Jack was wondering why you could see me, but not anyone else? It is kind-of odd, Once. No offence, but you were never one to believe in to supernatural.” I turned to him “Do you know why?”

“I always believed you would come back” he said.  


	19. Chapter 19

I was taken aback by this statement and couldn’t speak. Once saved my from having to think of something to say.

“So are you guys Guardians like Mustache is?”

“No” I said grateful for the subject change “The Lorax is a Nature Guardian, which is a completely different group. Nature Spirits are chosen by Mother Nature, not MIM.”

“So there’s a whole bunch of Lorax-like creatures out there”

“Not exactly like him. Mustache is actually tame compared to the rest of them. The River Guardian-”

“Sirara?” Jack asked

“Yeah, her. There was this one time that I gave Mississippi a drought and she was ticked off. She yelled at me for 3 hours non-stop. Anyway, we are Guardians of Childhood. We protect important things in children. I protect laughter, Jack protects fun, Merida protects Bravery, Hiccup protects Peace and Punz protects Joy.” I proceeded to explain Pitch and the problems that the Guardians were facing. I them told him the journey that we we’re on.

“So North gave us a time travel watch to travel to the past and retrieve the new  Guardians.” I finished “Punz was chosen as the Spirit of Light and Healing, Hiccup was chosen as the Spirit of Fall, and you were chosen as the Spring Spirit.  

“Me?” Right on cue a shaft of moonlight illuminated Once and lifted him up in the air.

“Welcome Once-ler, Spirit of Spring, Guardian of Optimism.” The moonlight flared and when it dimmed, Once was 20 years old again. He was wearing his white shirt, vest, striped jeans and fedora. He was carrying his old guitar. He was put back down and then I was shoved down to the ground by an unknown force.

I heard Punz cry out and Jack shout. I raised my head and realized that we were under attack.

“Nightmares” I yelled. I was surrounded by the black horses, cutting me off from everyone else. I raised my staff and began to fight. Through the black sand I could see flashes of Punzie’s light and Jack’s ice.

I suddenly heard the most awful sound to ever reach my ears. It was a bad guitar chord, magnified 100 times. I saw some Nightmares explode from the sheer terribleness of the sound. Once had joined the fight.

The Nightmares seemed to have endless numbers and kept coming and coming. It took my a least ten minutes to reach Jack and we fought back to back. In the distance I could see Hiccup and Toothless making their way toward us, Hiccup combating the Horses with a flaming sword and Toothless shooting plasma balls. An arrow whistled through the air and hit a Nightmare to my right. Merida can running up to us, firing on Nightmares as she went.

There was a brilliant flash of light, a group of Nightmares vaporized and Punz and Once made their way over to us. Hiccup had fought his way over to us and we all joined hand and Merida set the watch and opened a portal.

I immediately noticed that something was wrong. It still had it’s nasty dizzying sensation, but instead of being a swirl of bright color, it was black, with only the occasional swirl of orange and purple. We spun faster and faster until I felt like face was going to peal off.  It took much longer this time and I thought that we were going to be trapped in the portal.

At that second it ejected us out, slamming us against walls and the floor. The Portal vanished and we lay there, unable to move, for fear of throwing up or falling back over. After a while, I heard someone move and decided to risk standing.

I swayed on my feet, but was able to remain upright. Jack had gotten up and was helping Punz to her feet. When all of us had gotten up, we all surveyed our surroundings. The watch had taken us to a wrecked wooden building. It had once been beautiful, but now lay in ruins, decayed and torn apart.

“Where are we?” Jack asked “Red, are you sure you got us to the right time” Merida glared at him, but checked the watch. She gasped.

“What! What’s wrong.” Once asked alarmed. She showed us the watch and I felt a sense of dread. The watch’s face had been smashed, and it had a big dent in it.

“I fell during the fight” She said and she sounded close to tears “It must’ve broken. We were in a hurry to get out of there and I didn’t notice. That’s not the only thing wrong though.”

“What else could possibly make this situation worse” I said

“If the Watch is right...we're more that 8 months in the future.” She was pale and her shoulders began to shake.

“Mer, it’s going to be alright” I said gently “Let’s find out where we are and then we can figure out what to do” Punz conjured some light and we explored the place. It was completely destroyed and I couldn’t think why the watch had sent us to this place. Five minutes later, however I bumped into something that made everything perfectly clear to me.

“Guys, you should come and see this” I called. The sense of dread that I had, was now filling every part of me. I had bumped into a sphere, that I recognized as North’s globe. And every one of the lights was out.  


	20. Chapter 20

“How could this happen!” Jack raged “The Guardians couldn’t have been defeated!” He had been pacing up and down the Globe Room ranting in disbelief. I had showed the other’s the globe and explained it’s significance to Once, Punz and Hiccup.

“Jack, we don’t know what happened.” I said “They could be in Tooth’s Palace or Bunny’s Warren.”

He rounded on me “So, what about the Globe. Nobody believes in us anymore! Do you really think that they're still around.”  I fell silent. “Yeah, that’s what I thought” He banged his fist on the table in frustration and several paper slid to the floor. One caught my eye and I picked it up.

It was an envelope, with Jack’s, Merida’s and my name on it. “Guys, come here” I said excitedly and began to read the letter inside.

  
  


_Dear Jack, Merida, Breeze and new Guardians,_

_If you are reading this something terrible had happened. I am writing this as a last resort and hope that it will never have to be read._

_We expected you to reappear right after you left and when you didn’t we began to worry. Pitch and his followers attacked more and more frequently. We were forced to abandon Bunny’s Warren and we hid in Tooth’s Palace. For a while that held us, but Pitch recruited many more to his side like Nirrhiti(The Spirit of Corruption) and Ire( The Spirit of Wrath) and we eventually were forced into just defence. They overcame the Palace and we barricaded ourselves in here._

_Pitch attacks at least every day, and since we cannot do our jobs, we lose hundreds of lights everyday. We grow weaker with every passing hour and I fear that this is one war that we cannot win._

_I don’t share these fears with Tooth, or Sandy and especially not Bunny.  We missed Easter and they are all disheartened and despair, which is exactly what Pitch wants._

_Keep fighting, and have hope. If you give into fear Pitch will have already won. Manny chose all of you for a reason and He knows that you can beat Pitch and restore faith._

_May your Believe never waver_

_-North_

* * *

 

Silence followed these words and for a while no one spoke. Then Once asked the question on everyones mind.

“So what now?”

“I don’t know” I said heavily “I was just made a Guardian.”

“North always made the plans” Jack said quietly. His voice sounded hollow and his hoodie was up, obscuring his face. “He was the leader.”

“You're not giving up, are you?” Merida asked incredulously.

“Look, Red” Jack snapped “The Guardians are gone, Pitch and his followers are stronger than ever and there aren’t any children who believe. It’s over”

“It is not!” Merida stood up, her eyes blazing “North said it himself, we can’t give into defeat and fear. We can turn this around. I won’t give up even if you do!”

I stood up “Merida’s right. We can’t sit around waiting for defeat. We need to find Pitch and knock him into the next millennia” Merida and I headed for the window before Hiccup stopped us.  

 “Whoa,whoa whoa, you can’t just leave.”

“Why not” Merida said fiercely

“Well... Do you even have a plan?”  

“No” I said “What’s your point”

“So you're just going to charge out there, hope you find Pitch and are able to beat him and all on his nightmares and all the other Spirits”

“Yeah”

Hiccup facepalmed. “Oh Thor help me”

“Do you have a plan” I said rudely

“Well,” He said with mock patience “We could try and find where Pitch’s lair is”

“I already know where it is” Jack said “It’s under a bed in the forest near Burgess”

“Wouldn’t he have changed it since he has followers” Once said “I’ve just heard of Pitch Black, but I think that since he is more powerful and has amassed an army he would move to a more impressive lair”

“I still like our plan better” I grumbled

“You just don’t want to admit that you’re wrong” Once said smirking at me.

“No!”

“So you think that going out randomly, weapons at the ready, with no idea of where Pitch is, and no plan to stop him, is a better idea than a reconnaissance mission”

“...Maybe”

“Right” Once said rolling his eyes

“Well, all in favor of finding out where Pitch Black’s lair is, raise your hand.” Hiccup said.  To my dismay everyone but Meri and I voted for this option.  “All opposed” I flung my hand in the air as did Merida, but it made no difference. “The reconnaissance mission wins”

“Fine, let’s go then” I said and once again headed for the window.

“Not yet” Hiccup said

“What now!”

“We have to determine likely spots for Pitch’s lair.” I groaned but Hiccup was insistent.

“You know how you said that there were Spirits before us, that were killed by Pitch.” Punz asked

“Yeah” Jack said

“Well, we could check their old lairs, incase Pitch has taken over it.” We all agreed to this and set off. Punz had also suggested that we stick together and We wholeheartedly agreed, not want to have to face Pitch alone.

It took longer than expected and Cernunnos and Thallos lair’s, while destroyed had not been taken over. It wasn’t till we went to Sulis’s palace that we struck gold. Her beautiful palace in the air had been transformed into a craggy dark castle of doom.

* * *

 

We had to keep hidden in the clouds as Nightmares were continually going to and from the Palace.

“What do we do now” Punz whispered

“We go back to the Pole and formulate a plan” Hiccup whispered back

“No” I said

“No?”

“Nope” I said cheerfully “We’ve done things your way, it’s my turn.” Before he could reply, I flew down to the entrance. I could hear Hiccup cursing behind me, but he had no choice but to follow.  

Toothless landed and Hiccup, Merida and Once dismounted. Jack and Punz landed shortly after and we proceed in.

It was completely dark inside. One moment everything was illuminated by the silver moonlight, the next I couldn't see a millimeter in front of my face. A small sphere of light flashed into existence but it didn’t help. It didn’t spread it’s light, just hung there in midair.

“Um... Punz, is something wrong” Merida whispered

“It’s not illuminating anything” Punz whispered back. “I’m not doing anything different than before. It’s like this place consumes all light.”

“Lets get rid of it.” I said quietly “It’ll just make us easier to find.” Punz extinguished it and we walked in complete darkness, occasionally bumping into pillars and other thing.

After about 15 minutes, the tunnel or what ever we were in opened up into a large circular room. It had a globe similar to North’s, except that there were purple lights glowing all over it. This room was very dimly lit with torches and we could make out the contents of the room.

“Those lights must be children who believe in Pitch and his followers.” Jack said

“This used to be Sulis’s work place” I said bitterly “Pitch has turned it into his throne room.” There was a large obsidian, jewel encrusted throne at the far right. It was currently occupied with the Fear king himself, and he was talking to a man cloaked in black.

“Let’s get closer so we can-humf!” That last part was muffled because I had just been grabbed from behind. I could tell from the sounds of alarm that the other’s had been grabbed as well.

I was dragged off toward the throne and as soon as we were in speaking distance, My capturer called out.

“Lord Pitch, we have caught intruders” He turned and when he saw us, a shocked look came over his face. He quickly changed to a look of amusement.

“Well, well, look who it is. It seems that the childrens crusade has come to try and save the day. I must say, it is a surprise to see you. All in one piece, I mean”

We were all confused with this statement, and keep quiet. Pitch chuckled

“Oh come now, I know you're not that dense, you must have run into my Nightmare along your way. Such a pity that they couldn't finish you off then”

“Enough small talk Pitch, what have you done with the Guardians?” Jack snarled

“Tut, tut, Patience is a virtue, Jack. All in good time.” He stood up. “I did try and prevent the rise of new guardians. I kidnapped Father Time before we made our move. Unfortunately, North had made a time travel device and it was too late to stop you here. Time, being the old fool that he is, refused to show me how to work his devises. So, I figured them out myself and sent the Nightmares at you. They never came back and I wasn’t sure if I had succeeded. Since you are here, I can only assume that they failed.  He smiled “No matter. I will have the pleasure of disposing of you myself. But first” He walked down to us. “Let me introduce you to a few new associates of mine” He beckoned at the door by his throne and a person stepped out.

It was a fairy with black, and purple feathers, and golden eyes. She was alien and yet horrible familiar at the same time.

“Toothiana” I whispered  

 

 


	21. Chapter 21

3 more figures stepped out. A giant rabbit, with black fur and fangs. A tall Russian man wearing a dark maroon coat and a black beard. The last was a short man made completely of black sand.

“What have you done to them” Merida whispered

“I’ve done nothing” Pitch said. I snorted. “I truly did not have anything to do with this. Not that I’m complaining. My original plan was to destroy the Guardians.  I was slowly weakening them by destroying the faith of the children. However, Nirrhiti” He gestured to the black clad man he had been talking to. “The Spirit on Corruption, had a better plan. He had not joined me then and so I was not responsible for this.”

“As belief in them faded, so did the belief in their centers. When they were weak enough, Nirrhiti was able to corrupt their centers. Because they supported new dark centers, that are very much believed in, they did not fade.”

He pointed to the Dark North. “May I introduce the Krampus. Dark Spirit of Chaos. He is not the person you remember. In fact he’s hardly a person at all. He lives for mindless destruction.”

Pich beckoned and Bunny, or what was left of him stepped forward. “May I introduce E. Aster Bunnymund, Dark Spirit of Despair. He who once brought hope, now brings it’s downfall.”    

“And here we have the lovely Toothina. Her center change was interesting. She collected teeth and in the protected the most important memories of childhood. She and her fairy followers helped children and adults alike remember anything they needed, good and bad memories alike. She now focuses on only the bad ones, tormenting their owners.”

“And last, but certainly not least we have the Sandman. Dark Spirit of Nightmares. I might be able to influence them, but he is their true master.”

Pitch settled back down in his seat. “Now that the pleasantries are over with, where were we. Ahh right” He turned to the Dark Guardians “Kill them”

“North let out a battle cry and leaped toward us.  And that’s when it happened. I burst into flames. Perhaps it was because I was so full on rage at the moment or perhaps it was the terror that filled me at seeing North looking at me with such malice. What ever had caused it, it was very helpful.

My captor yelled and dropped me. The fire was now spreading across the floor. The others were dropped as well as their kidnappers fled the advancing flames.

“Let’s go!” I yelled and we all took off for the door. I heard the Dark Guardians chasing us and I felt a boomerang graise the top of my head. Nightmares were also sticking after us and I hear Pitch call “Kill them, you fools. Do not let them escape!”  

I burst out of the door and shot up into the air. I turned to see Punz flying and Hiccup and Merida on Toothless.

“Where’s Jack and Once!” I shouted

“I don’t know” Hiccup shouted back “I thought they were with you”

“They’re not” I said panic rising up inside me. “They must still be inside. We have to go back”

“Are you insane” Merida yelled “If we go back inside, we’ll all be killed. If we don’t leave right now we probably will”

“But-”

“We need to leave. They would want us to stop PItch and we can’t do that if we’re dead. Does anyone know a place where we can hide”

“I know one” Punz shouted “Follow me” I had no choice but to follow them, as Nightmares were now flooding the sky and I could see Tooth and Sandy giving us chase.

Thunder boomed overhead and rain began to pour from the sky.  I saw a flash of light in front of us we all flew through a snow globe portal that we had taken from the Pole.

It had opened up into an equally rainy sky. Punz lead us to a very old tower in a hidden glade. We flew in the window and I collapsed and began to sob. We had escaped but Jack and Once was gone.

* * *

 

A long time passed. My sobs eventually ceased and I just stayed there, curled up in a corner. After what seemed like hours, I heard footsteps approaching me.

“Yes I know, It was all my fault that they're gone. We should have listened to you Hiccup.” I snapped “I’m not in the mood for a lecture, right now.”

“I’m not going to lecture you” Merida said “And I’m not Hiccup” She came over and sat down next to me. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bite my head off.” I opened my mouth to apologize but she cut me off. “It’s alright, I understand. I wanted to tell you that none of us blame you.”

“I made us all go down there” I mumbled “We had no plan and they’re gone now”

“Jack and Once-ler made their own decisions” Meri said “Jack probably would’ve done the same”

“But-”

“No Buts” Punz said firmly as she walked up to us. “It wasn’t your fault, it’s Pitch’s. Remember what North said we can’t give into fear and despair.” Hiccup joined us in the corner.

“What do we do now”

“I don’t think that we should leave here” Punz said “Pitch and the Dark Guardians will be looking for us. Nobody has ever found this place since Eugene and I don’t think anyone will.”

“Speaking of this place” I said “Is this the tower you were trapped in for 18 years”

“Yes” Punz said

“Doesn't Gothel know where this place is?”

“Yeah” Punz said “But she’d never think that I’d go back here, so they won’t look here!” I wasn’t quite reassured but since I didn’t have a better hideout I didn’t object.

“How did you escape Gothel anyway” Merida asked

“Could you tell us?” I said

“Umm, shouldn’t we be planning how to beat Pitch?” Punz asked

“Well, we can’t go anywhere” Hiccup said “And we need something to cheer us up”

“Ok” Punz said. She stood up and stood there for a minute. She began to laugh “I don’t know where to start, Eugene usually told this story.”

“Why don’t you tell it like he would”

Punz took a deep breath and spoke in a deep voice “This is the story of how I died”

“Punz!” Merida exclaimed “You’re supposed to be cheering us up”

“Sorry, that’s usually how he started!” She stated again and this time it was less morbid. As it turns out Punz got her magic hair from the a drop of sun. The sun drop created a flower that could heal anything. Gothel hordied the flower for centuries. One year though the flower was taken to heal the sick queen who was pregnant with Punz. The flower gave her golden hair that possessed the same powers as the flower. Gothel stole Rapunzel and kept her hidden for 18 years.

That all changed when a thief named Flynn Rider hid in the tower from the palace guards. Punz knocked him out and took his satchel, that held the lost princesses tiara. She bartered with him to take her to see the lanterns in exchange for it back. They went to see them but Gothel tricked her back to the tower and imprisoned Flynn. He escaped and went back to the tower, just in time to see Gothel forcing Punz to leave. Punz had figured out that she was the lost princesses, and that Gothel wasn’t really her mother.

Gothel stabbed Flynn and tried to drag Punz away. Punz then made a deal with Gothel that if Gothel let her heal Flynn, Punz would go willingly with her. Gothel agree and then tied Flynn up. Punz went to heal Flynn, but he cut her her hair. Gothel aged rapidly and then fell out the tower and turned to dust. Flynn died, but Punz brought him back with magic tears.

“Wow….” I said “Punz, your mother was messed up”

“She wasn’t my mother” Punz said bitterly “She never was and never acted like a mother. I wish I could’ve seen that sooner” Silence followed these words. I attempted to find something to change the subject but Merida beat me to it.

“I turned my Mum into a bear.” We all stared at her. “What”

“Why exactly did you do this” Hiccup asked

“Well, she was going to make me marry and I didn’t want to, and we had a fight and I left, and I found a witch in the woods. I asked her for something to change my mum and I meant to change her mind, but it turned to her into a bear. We got her back to normal though and I didn’t have to marry!”

“Ooooookay,” I said “Remind me never to get on your bad side.” I turned back to Punz “Didn’t you say that you had a cousin with ice powers”

“Yeah” She said perking up “Nobody knew about it till her coronation though. Eugene and I were the first people from Corona to find out.”

“How did you guys find out” Meri asked

“Well, her powers kind of got out of control. As Eugene would say, this is the story of how we nearly froze to death…


	22. Chapter 22

After nearly two hours of talking and laughing we went back to the subject on what to do next.

“I don’t think we should attack them” Merida said bluntly

“What!” I said angrily “Mer, how can you say that. I know you didn’t like Jack much but-”

“It’s not about that” She said slightly offended “I don’t think we would win a head-of attack. We’re too weak, there is no more belief.”

“Mer, I’ve gone over 600 years without belief.”

“Not just us, the kids won’t believe in our centers.” She said impatiently. “Breeze, I know you're angry at Pitch right now but at the moment he’s just too powerful. He’s made the children of the world fear him and his followers. I don’t think that they belief in laughter or joy as much anymore.”

“Merida’s right” Hiccup said “If I’m remembering correctly, Pitch has tried this before”

“Yeah” I said

“How did the Guardians beat him the last time” Hiccup asked “I’m sure Pitch tried destroying kids belief before”

“He did” I said “But he failed to wipe out every light and Jack convinced the last light to keep believing and he convinced his friends with Jack's help. The kids could turn the Nightmare back into Dreams and after that Pitch lost.”

“We can’t do that this time” Hiccup said

“No really” I said sarcastically. We all sat in silence for a while before Rapunzel spoke up.

“Oh, I know!” She said excitedly “We can make them believe in us”

“Punz, that’s kind-of hard to do if we don’t have a believer in the first place.” Merida said gloomily

“No, in our centers” Punz said “We can help dispel fear by creating laughter, joy and fun. We’ll be strengthening ourselves, while at the same time weakening Pitch and his followers. Divide and Conquer.” She beamed at us and I could feel the beginning of a smile on my lips.

“Lets do it” I said

* * *

 

We split up into to two groups. We decided that Merida should work with Hiccup, so she could ride on Toothless, since Mer couldn’t fly. We hadn't seen her horse Angus and didn’t have time to look for him.

We also decided to use cell phones as a way of communication. We took two from random places. Punz objected(“Isn’t that stealing?”) but I managed to convince her otherwise(“It’s borrowing. Borrowing without permission”). In retrospect this was not the best idea however as it took a good 45 minutes to teach them to use it. And even after that, they still didn’t even want to touch it. Finally I got Hiccup to carry the Phone for his team and I carried the one for mine. We agreed to meet back at the tower at the end on the day.

Punz and I concentrated on just spreading our centers, Joy and Laughter. We dispelled the gloomy clouds that seemed to be everywhere. We made bright sunny days, and Punz healed the sick and injured. Nobody saw us, but that was to be expected. Rapunzel was having the time of her life. This was her first real day as a Spirit and she was exuberant.

We traveled all over the world and Punz was amazed at all the different places and cultures and art. Especially art. We stayed in the Sistine Chapel for ages as she looked and marved at all the murals.

After we visited New York, we were going to France and Punz and I were traveling above the earth. Punz loved flying. She laughed and burst into song.

_Just smell the clouds! The sky! Just like I’d thought they’d be!_

_Just feel that summer wind- the way it’s calling me_

_For the first time in forever, I’m completely free!_

_I could go Flying_

_And Floating_

_And Gliding_

_And Soaring_

_And Racing_

_And Bounding_

_Wings Flapping_

_Heart Pounding_

_And Once again feeling_

_Now’s when my life begins_

When she finished she looked over at me embarrassed. “Sorry, you probably think I’m weird. It took me a while after I left the tower to realize that people usually don’t start singing randomly”

“Naw, I’m used to it.” I said smiling “Once does that all the time...or did.” My grin faded from my face and Punz came over to me.

“I’m sorry about your friend” She said sadly “He seemed like a really nice guy”

“He was” I said “He made a few mistakes along the road, but he was a good person.”

“He must have been” Punz said “He wouldn’t have been chosen if he wasn’t” We were interrupted by the phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it.

“Hello”

“Breeze, you and Punz need to come right now” Hiccup said urgently

“What’s wrong!”

“It’s hard to describe. You guys just need come see it. We’re in a town called Burgess, Pennsylvania.”

“We’ll be right there” I said shooting Punz a worried look and hung up. “Hiccup and Merida need us to see something, It’s in Burgess, Pennsylvania”

We changed course and headed for the small town. We got there in half an hour. We spotted Hiccup and Merida on Toothless and headed for them. As we did I gasped. The town of Burgess lay in ruins. Not the result of a fire or flood, but the houses and building had decayed, the smell of rot was so strong I could smell it from here.

“Was this Namtar’s doing” I asked Hiccup and Merida.

“We’re not sure” Hiccup said grimly “When we got here it was already done. The People are mostly fine, only minor injuries.”

“Well, physically they’re Ok.” Merida said “But their acting strange. They argue and fight over the smallest of resources, even useless things. If it gets to it, I think they might even kill each other over them. They’re turning into beasts on the outside”

“This doesn’t seem like something Pitch would do” I said “His one main goal is to be believed in and to spread fear. He doesn’t usually attack humans”

“He could’ve have changed, now that he’s accomplished those things” Hiccup said

“Maybe” I said unconvinced “Let’s go down there and see if we can find anything more out” We flew down and searched the streets of Burgess, not quite sure what we were looking for.

We ended out search in a house that Merida said belonged to a boy named Jamie.

“Jack introduced us once” Merida said  

“Jack introduced you” Hiccup said incredulously

“You mean that you were near Jack for a long time...and you didn’t kill each other” Punz asked teasingly

“Hardy har har” Merida said dryly “There were rare occasions where Jack was not being a pest. Anyway Jack introduced us 2 years ago. Jamie was the last light, in that last battle with Pitch”

“Yes it was so hard to convince that boy the second time. Stubborn little light wouldn't go out. But we managed in the end.” We all turned and Pitch Black stepped out of the Shadows.

“Hello my little Guardians in training, how goes the fight.”

“You know very well how it’s going” I spat at him

“Really, do I? Were you fighting me? I couldn't tell if you were or not, so little difference was made.”

“We will beat you Pitch” Punz snapped at him. “We-”

“Yes yes, good will eventually triumph over evil, yada yada yada” He yawned “You can try little Guardians, but you will fail. There is just not enough good in the world left to work with. However there is another option.”

“Which is what?” Merida asked apprehensively  

“Why, you could join me” He said

“Join you!” I said incredulously “Yeah right”

“Aw, come on Breeze” A much different voice said “How bad could this possibly be?”

 

 


	23. Chapter 23

2 figures stepped out of the gloom. The one who had spoken was a tall man with dark hair, a green suit and a red guitar. He grinned at us and came forward into what little light was in the room. It was the Once-ler. Or a twisted version of my best friend. He had yellow eyes and was grinning in a horrible, greedy way. I rarely seen him like this. Only during his mortal life and it only lasted for a short while.

The other person stepped closer to us, revealing himself to be a darkened Jack Frost. His hair was no longer white. Instead it was grey with black streaks running through it. His blue hoodie had turned black, and he too was grinning in a terrible twisted way.

“Wha...What have you done to them.” I said weakly

“I’ve done nothing” Pitch said “They have finally seen the light...or the darkness as it were and have joined me. After you four left them mercilessly behind, they saw the uselessness of fighting me and abandoned this futile war.”

“We didn’t leave them” Punz exclaimed “We thought they were with us-”

“And when you found out they were not, did you try to save them?” Pitch asked mockingly.

“You’re conveniently leaving out the fact, that we were fleeing from you” Hiccup pointed out. Pitch ignored him.

“If you don’t believe me, ask them yourselves”

“Pitch is telling the truth” Jack leered at us “We finally see his side of things. The Guardians never help anyone out of their little group. You, out of everyone should know this Breeze. Before I was chosen, the Guardians never cared for me. They never cared that I was lonely, that I had no beliverves, that I had feelings. The same would’ve happened to you Breeze and you know it. Do you think that if Pitch never had started a war, that if you were never chosen as a Guardian, that they would’ve seen you in any way other than a pest!”

I opened my mouth to argue, to say that he was wrong, to yell at him for ever believing anything Pitch Black told him, but as his words sank in I realized that he had a point. When had the Guardians ever cared for any other Spirit other than themselves. He saw the expression of my face and smirked triumphantly.

What if he was right. What if Pitch was right, horrible as it sounds. It made sense and I could relate to what both Pitch and Jack were saying. Every time I pulled a prank of Bunny’s Warren or messed with Spring, making it hot and dry, whether it was of purpose or not, I got chewed out by the Easter Kangaroo and he never listened.

I shut my eyes, feeling the despair press down on me. And then suddenly unbidden, memories flooded my mind. Collecting teeth with Toothiana and her Fairies. Talking to Sandy and venting my feelings about being unseen as he listened patiently. The one time that Cottontail and I had actually gotten along, as we teamed up and pranked North. My eyes burst open.

“You’re wrong!” Pitch, The Once-ler and Jack turned to me and I saw their smiles falter.

“Wrong” Pitch repeated incredulously “Please, do tell how”    

“The Guardians may have made some mistakes” I said strongly “But they always strive to change and to do the right thing. They are always their for the children and no matter how wrong they can be sometimes, I know that they are and always will be better than you. So, I will politely decline your offer.”

Pitch had a very ugly look on his face and he spat at us “Fine you stupid little Spirits, I gave you one last chance. You will join me in time” He turned to Jack and the Once-ler. “Throw them in the dungeon”      

* * *

 

The dungeon was the bottom floor on Pitch’s dark castle. It was everything one would imagine a dungeon to be, complete with barred windows and doors, a dank smell and the occasional drip, drip, drip of water in the far corner. My staff and all of the other's weapons were taken from them. Toothless was lead somewhere else and  We were all shoved in the cell and the door was slammed shut.

“What do you think he’s going to do to us” Rapunzel whispered

“I don’t know” Merida whispered back.

“Punz, can you create more light.” I said “ I know it’s not going to illuminate anything, but at least it something other to look at besides the darkness.” She obliged and we sat there in a circle around the hovering ball of light. To our surprise the ball on light spread its light. Very dimly, but we could see each other.  

After a very long while, we heard footsteps and our cell door opened. 3 people came in and I recognised them as the thugs who had captured us the first time we were here.

“You!” One of them barked at Hiccup “Come with us”

“He’s not goin’ anywhere” Merida said fiercely “You’ll have to get through me!”

They laughed at her. “You ain’t in any position to be giving threats, little Miss Redhead.”

“Merida, don’t” Hiccup said quietly “I appreciate it, but it won’t do any good” The thugs led Hiccup away and their footsteps faded.

“What are they doing” Punz asked, her voice quavering slightly.    

“I don’t know” I said “Nirrhiti turned the Guardians when they lost all their believers, and Jack and Once were corrupted because we had just gotten back and hadn't been able to spread our centers. We just did a whole day of spreading light and joy, though so if I were Pitch I would just leave us down here until he’s able to counteract that belief. He can’t corrupt us now”

“So say I” A raspy voice said from the gloom. “So say I” We jumped and scurried back as a figured draped in rags came into view.

“Wha...Who are you” Merida gasped

It was an old wizened man, with tangled matted grey hair and beard, and a crazed look in his eyes.

“Father Time?” I asked tentatively. I was almost positive it was him, but he looked much older. He usually looks about 20. Many crazy mortals imagine him to look as old as he did now. This is weird because he has the powers of time at his command, so why would he be 80 when he could be 20. People can have very strange ideas

He turned and stared at me for a second before stumbling toward me. “Breeze, you are here!”

“Yeah” I said

“You must now give in!” He rasped urgently “Do not give in! Promise me!”

“Give into what” I said alarmed

“He will try to kill belief “ He cried

“We know that” I told him

“No, belief in yourself! Corruption cannot turn you unless you have no believers including yourself. He will tried to make you doubt yourself, by showing you horrible things and memories.” He shook my shoulders  “You must promise me not to give in! Promise me!”

“I will! I do promise!” I said unnerved.

He looked relieved “Good”  He moved back to whatever part of the cell he had been in before, muttering to himself as he went.

A while later Hiccup was returned  to the cell, white and shaking.

“Hiccup what’s wrong” Punz asked “What did he do”

Hiccup was silent for a minute before speaking “It was my father” He finally croaked out. “I saw my father. He...he was angry. Disowned me as his son. Said I wasn't a true Viking.”

“Hic, that wasn’t real” Merida said “It wasn’t real”

“It looked real” He whispered and then said no more, as he stared off into space. We all sat there in the semi-darkness, listening to the water drip and we waited for our turn.

 

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello my Readers:) Sorry I haven't updated, School has taken over my life. Anyway I will try to the next chapter up as soon as I can, but untill then enjoy this one! Please comment and tell me what you think about it:)

 

Hiccup and Merida were the first to fall. They both experienced similar things, A disapproving parent and family.

Punz held strong, though she saw Gothel every time, berating her and putting her down. She also saw an alternate version of her life. One in which she healed Flynn, but was taken away by Gothel and forced to heal her for eternity. I didn’t see an alternate version of my life, I just relived it. I died a thousand time over, in the same way.

I would be lying if I said that I never had times where I nearly gave in. There were times that I just wanted to cry and to give in. The hardest times were perhaps when I saw Hiccup and Meri fall.

Meri fell first. It was after one of her sessions and she was breathing hard, and was pale. She didn’t respond to us and after a few minutes she rested her head against the cell wall. Her eyes squeezed shut and hot tears spilled down her cheeks.

As soon as that happened, her hair turned black, her dress turned red and when her eyes opened they were a glowing yellow. She stood up, and walked stiffly over to the cell door and the guards outside let her out.

Hiccup was next, but we didn’t see his transformation. He never returned from his last torcher session.

The sound of footsteps approached our cell and the door creaked open. I was pulled roughly to my feet and was dragged along the corridor.

Instead of going to the usually room however, I was taken instead to what looked like a medieval torture chamber. It didn’t bode well.

“Umm… why are we going here” I rasped, my voice weak from un-use

“Shut up” The thug snapped “Lord Pitch is trying a new tactic. Since Mental pain does not seem to be working, he is moving on physical pain”

“What!” I was hit by the thug and fell silent, but my mind was racing. This wasn’t like Pitch at all. He was only ever bent on destroying the Guardians through unbelief. This was way out of character.

There was another occupant in the room. There had never been before and I had a bad feeling when I saw who it was.

It was the demented form of E. Aster Bunnymund. He leered at me and I silently cursed Pitch and his powers. He was the one Guardian that I was afraid of fighting.  

The thug left and we were alone in the room. He crossed over to me and smirked. “Not so cocky now, are you Breeze. Bet you wish you’d left my Warren alone”

“Bunny, I…”

“Oh, It’s much too late for apologies, Breeze. You’re going to pay for every prank you ever pulled”

“But-” He slapped me, his claws cutting across my cheek

“Don’t interrupt me” He snarled

“No!” I said strongly. He raised his paw to strike me again but began to walk backwards. “Stop. This isn’t you, Bunny. No matter how many pranks I pull or how mad you get, you’d never do this.”

He advanced on me, snarling “How do you know? How do you know that I haven’t been this was all along”

“I know” I said firmly “You true self is a grumpy, Easter loving, Pooka, who has a passion for painting, who is jealous of Christmas. I know you can become that person again Bunny!”

I walked into the door and he cornered me. “It is too late for that” He hissed at me.

“No it’s not.” I said “That’s not you talking Cottontail, that Namtar. Fight him Bunny, I know you can” He raised his paw to strike me, but I grabbed it. “I believe in you!”

 

His paw slipped from my hands. All at once Bunny was shrinking. I was internally freaking out, afraid that I had somehow caused this. I shut my eyes tight and waited.

For a few minutes there was silence and then a disgruntled voice spoke. “You can open yer eyes now” I did so- and had to clap my hands over my mouth to keep from laughing. Bunny now looked like a normal sized, very cute, very cuddly rabbit.

“Laugh it up” Bunny said grumpily.

“Sorry” I gasped “It’s just...you’re…” I gestured toward him.

“ Yeah, yeah. You just wait till I’m back to normal”

“At least your not trying to kill me” I said “How…”

“Up until now, no one had any belief in hope or in me.” he said “You did though, just now...and that may have been enough to restore my center. Unfortunately... you are my only believer so I’m have to remain small for the time being.”

“You look... adorable” I said trying and failing to keep a straight face.

“Sheesh, enough already.” He hopped over to the door. “Lets get out of here”   

“Easier said than done” I whispered “I can’t see a thing out there, and I don’t have my staff.”

“I know where he keeps your weapons” Bunny whispered back “I can get you there, but you’ll have to fight…”

“Fight who?” I asked. He was silent. “Bunny?”

“Whoever’s on duty at the time” He said quickly. “C’mon we have to go”

“We have to go get Rapunzel first” I said

“Breeze we don’t have time for that”

“We can’t just leave her there!”

“We need to get out of here now”

“I’m not going with you, unless we get Punz first”

Bunny glared at me. “Crikey, are you always this stubborn” He sighed “Look, Breeze, I’m not against saving Rebecka-”

“Rapunzel!”

“-Rapunzel. If we go get her now though, we risk getting caught, and then all three of us will be in Pitch’s dungeon. We need to get you staff back and then escape, so we can figure out a way to get the others back, Ok?” I was silent “Ok?”

“Fine” I said grumpily “We’ll do it your way.” I opened the door and looked down the dark hallway. I turned back to Bunny “Lead on.”  

We stumbled around in the dark for a few minutes, before Bunny said that he was only 60% sure he knew where we were going.

“What do mean you don’t know where we’re going” I whispered furiously

“I didn’t say that, I said I’m not completely sure we’re going the right way. I could see in the dark before you changed me back, so I’m going on memory”

“Well that’s just great” I said sarcastically. “Not only are we wandering through Pitch Black’s dark funhouse of doom, we also have no idea where we’re going.

“Oh, Shut up”

We wandered around for what seemed like forever. Bunny truly did not seem to have any idea where we were going, no matter what he said. We kept turning back, left right, until I was convinced we were going in a circle.

We had a couple of near misses, once we almost ran into Dark Merida, as she rode by on Angus (Who she seemed to have retrieved)  and another time into Gothel and Nirrhiti, who were looking for us, and of course the usual Nightmares.

“Aha” Bunny exclaimed after a while “We’re close! I know it”

“24 times the charm?” I said grinning . He glared at me.

“I know where we are! The weapons are held right around this-” We turned left and came face to face with a Dark fairy.

“...corner” He finished weakly. There was a silence that seemed to span eternity

“Hiya Toothy” I said, with false cheer. “How’s it going” She said nothing. “...Not really into talking. That’s alright, we-”

“Breeze” Bunny said

“What?”

“Shut up”

I turned to him outraged “What do you mean-”

“I meant Shut up. You might annoy…”

“Annoy who?” I whispered. He didn’t answer. “Bunny?” Bunnymund seemed to be frozen in place. Out of the darkness came dozen of little yellow eyes. As they came closer I could see what they were.

“Oh...my...gosh” I whispered in horror. “Evil tooth fairies”  

* * *

 

“What has happened to you” Toothiana asked harshly. Her gaze was on Bunny, and she seemed...worried for him. “She has corrupted you” She turned to me, her eyes burning with rage, witch was very out of character for Tooth(Unless you forgot to brush your teeth after eating all of North’s treats)

“No Tooth, she freed me” Bunny said firmly “Pitch corrupted me, you, North and Sandy-”

“I must free you” She muttered and her eyes seemed to glow brighter. “Kill her” She hissed at her fairies and they came for us, each bearing a tiny blade.

“Breeze, run” Bunny whispered urgently “Grab your staff and go”

“But-”

“Now is not the time to argue. For once in your life listen to me. You need to rekindle belief in the kids. They’re the only ones who can stop Pitch. Give...Give them the hope I couldn’t”

“Bunny...”

“GO NOW!” The fairies had reached us, and stabbed at me with their tiny blades. I blindly pushed through the swarm swatting at them. I heard Bunny yell and then it turned into a snarl. Toothiana had turned him dark again.

I blindly tripped over something, in my rush to escape the fairies. It was a long chest and it could only be holding one thing. I scrambled over to and wrenched at the lid. It was stuck tight. Frantically I tried any means I could to open the chest, before the two dark guardians came over. And then an idea struck me. A desperate and last resort, but there was no other way.

“Hey grey ears” I called. Bunny snarled at me. “Yep that’s what  I thought.” I smirked “All brawn and no brain. ‘Course that’s not much different from before. It’s no wonder that Jack and I could fool you all the time with your tiny brain”

Bunny was snorting and breathing hard; he looked livid “You...Dare…”

“It’s not really daring” I said “I mean... Tooth, Sandy, even North is so much scarier than you. Even before you changed North was still superior to you. Everyone knows that Christmas is much better than Easter.”

He charged at me, screaming and foaming at the mouth. I had never seen him this angry before. Fortunately it suited my purposes. I stepped out of the way of the charging pooka. He slammed into the wall sandwiching the chest in between him and the stone wall. I heard wood splinter and the chest shattered.

He turned and charged at me again. I spun and dodged him, and slid under the fairy that was now chasing me at well. I felt a sting on my arm and knew that I was being chased by the mini tooth's as well.

I grabbed my staff from the remnants of the chest and shot up into the air. I had no idea where to go, since Bunny had been my guide. I chose a smaller corridor, flew into it and set fire to the entrance. The shadowy shapes of the Fairies and Bunny halted but the fire wouldn’t last forever.

I took off running down the narrow corridor. The ceiling was too low for me to be able to fly, so I would have rely on my legs. My breathing grew ragged and a painful stitch in my side begged me to stop.

My legs did give out eventually and I tripped and fell into the last person I wanted to see.

Breathing hard, I jerked back and scrambled to my feet. The shocked expresion of the man’s face mirrored my own. It was the Once-ler.

His surprise was quickly replaced by a frown. “Breeze, what are you doing here” He hissed “You're not supposed to leave your cell”

“Yeah, like you care” I muttered. Once looked hurt.

“But I do care for you” He said

“Oh yeah and throwing me in the dungeon was an act of true friendship” I said sarcastically

“Look-Breeze if you had just listened to Pitch-”

“Like heck I’m going to listen to him” I glared at him “You don’t understand what he’s done to them.” My eyes stung with tears as unbidden images of all my immortal friends flashed thru my mind. “Or to you” Tears began to stream down my face in earnest now. “Once-ler, I just got you back,” I mumbled “Why did I have to lose you again.”

I put my head in my hands and cried, sobs shaking my body. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Once sit down next to me. He fished around in his coat pocket, pulled out a silk green handkerchief and handed it to me. I reluctantly took it.

“Breeze” Once said softly “You haven’t lost me. I was the one that lost you, all those years ago. I’m truly sorry and...I know I don’t deserve it… but if you could just give me another chance?” I looked at him and he gave me his small cute smile, and my heart melted.

I let him pulled me to my feet and into a hug. I knew Once was still under Pitch Black’s control, but he was still _Once_. I didn’t want to turn away from him again, it had almost killed me the first time

Maybe if I went with him I could figure a way to break him free

* * *

A shadowy figure watched from the blackness, and smiled. The fool girl couldn't be Turned by hate and fear like the other two. No. She would be Turned by what she wanted the most. Love. And the boy was the perfect pawn. A good minion but slightly clueless, he would have no idea that they were both being used.

The Shadow watched as The Once-ler pulled the girl to her feet and as she wiped away her tears with his handkerchief. Alas if only she had a mirror. She could’ve then seen that her eyes were no longer emerald green.

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

Rapunzel sat curled up in a corner, tears slowly leaking from her eyes. It had been hours since Breeze had been taken; any hope Rapunzel had had was now gone. There was no other explanation. She was now the lone Guardian left. There was no one else she could turn to for help. Well...except Father Time. And he was nuts.

She could hear the old man muttering indistinctly to himself in the other side of the room. Ever since his outburst when they'd first arrived, he’d kept to himself, and the other and herself had also kept away from him; Breeze had seemed especially unnerved by his condition.

Rapunzel felt a pang in her chest for her lost friends and to keep her tears at bay, she began to sing to herself.

 

Flower gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine

 

She could feel the change in her hair, and saw the familiar glow as it raced down the the end on her hair.

Then for the first time since she could remember, something else, something different began to happen and change. Her wings began to glow.

At first it was only the tips and outline of them, but then swirling designs and patterns began to glow, and for the first time since she got there, the dungeon was illuminated. Both amazed and frightened she continued to sing.

 

Heal what has been hurt

Change the Fate’s design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine

What once was mine…

 

Her dress was now alight with the same swirling patterns of her wings, and any rips mended themselves. Any cuts she had healed and she felt clean. At the second to last line of her song the room blazed with light. As she sang the last line and trailed off into silence the light in the room condensed until her wings only glowed faintly.

She felt stronger though than she had in days, more determined, more hopeful. She stood up and saw the old man looking at her in awe. Rapunzel felt suddenly very self conscious and blushed.

Father Time grinned “HA!” he rasped “HA! You have broken his darkness, my young sprite. He will have a hard time turning you”

“Pitch?” Rapunzel asked

“Pitch? no no” The old man said “Pitch Black is no more in control than you are.”

Rapunzel frowned “He isn’t” Breeze and Jack had been sure it was him…

“Oh Pitch thinks he is in command” Father Time said with a ghastly smile “But he’s a pawn just like you friends now”

“Who’s pawn” Rapunzel asked quietly “My mother’s?”

“Nirrhiti” He whispered “The Spirit of Corruption. He finds weaknesses in people and bends them to his will. Pitch wanted nothing more than to be believed and feared in, and Nirrhiti took advantage of that and used him.”

“He didn’t break you” Rapunzel said quietly

He gave her a sad smile. “He has nothing to manipulate me with. I lost all who I love a long time ago. I gave no help to Pitch to chase you through time, but I am much to weak to help you now”

“Help me now?” She whispered

“Yes he said urgently “You are the only one left, you must stop him!” Rapunzel slowly stood up, a grim determination taking hold of her.  “You are stronger than him, my dear” Father Time said “Much stronger”

Rapunzel knelt back down and hugged him. “Thank you” She whispered.

“Least I could do” He whispered “Spread hope, my dear. And love, peace and joy. Remind the children of all that we do for them.”

“I will” Rapunzel said smiling for the first time in days.

“Now go, and good luck!”

Rapunzel hurried over to the door. It was thick solid wood. Getting out would be easier said than done. If only she had a weapon of some sort but even if she did she wouldn't know how to use it.

No point thinking of what I don’t have. She thought What do I have. She hadn’t gotten the hang on creating things out of light, she could make her hair grow, but that wouldn’t help her now. The only other things she could do was heal and make things younger. Wait    

An idea struck her and she placed a hand on the door and began to sing. As she sang, the door changed shaped and size. When she finished a seed fell to the ground along with two metal hinges.

Rapunzel stepped out into the hallway and started to run.

* * *

  
  


Excitement and terror shot through her, as she raced down the dark hallway. She extinguished the light that she had been emitting, think that it probably do her more harm than good.

The rooms and Hallways seemed endless. She had a few close calls with nightmare horses and once she caught a glimpse of Jack. Rapunzel began to lose the confidence she had when she first left her cell, and she was sure that she was going in circles . “Doesn’t do any good to escape the dungeon if I can’t get out on the castle” She thought “C’mon Punzie, think!” She had the idea to mark her the hallways that she’d gone down but the walls and floors were smooth and made of what she thought was probably marble. There were no stones to uses and she couldn't make a mark of the floor or the walls.

“Not that I could see it anyway in this darkness.” Rapunzel though discouraged “...Wait… Maybe I can leave a light mark on it!” Not the most discreet of methods, but better than staying in Pitch’s lair for any more time that she had too.

She pressed her hand to the wall and willed parts of the rock to light up. To her surprise the light began moving across the entire wall. Glittering designs spread like spider webs  and the marble became a cream color. Rapunzel felt a sudden warmth. It was more like an emotion than an actual physical sensation, and it felt like she had just come...home.

Punz pulled her hand away and the feeling left. The marble darkened and designs faded. She felt drained, but something that Breeze had said was coming back to her. Breeze had said that Pitch had taken this castle from another Spirit: Sulis the Spirit of Light and Healing. ‘If this was Sulis’s Castle’ Punz thought as she sat down, resting against the wall ‘Then it should be mine now...well if Pitch hadn’t taken it over’

She was interrupted from her thoughts by a pixie flying into her face. She flinched back startled and then calmed. There were three of them, small little glows of multicolored light, that dimly illuminated the space in front of them.

‘Hello’ An orange one said.

‘Only it wasn’t really a sound’ Punz thought ‘it was like the voice  you speak in inside your head’  “Hello?” She whispered out loud “Who-what are you”

‘We are the Sun Pixies.’ A blue one replied this time. Punz wasn’t sure just how  she knew, but she could tell which Pixie was speaking even if they were talking in her head.  ‘We were the last ones left after our Mistress fell. The others are in the tight grasp of sleep. We tried to wake them but the Dark King’s power was to great’

‘They will only wake when he is beaten’ the last pixie- a purple one- said with distress. ‘And he is much too powerful now, when the world is so dark and fearful.’

“Have you been here since he took over”

‘Yes’ The Orange Pixie said ‘We could not abandon our home… and we were told by the moon to await a new mistress here. One with more power than even Sulis herself. One gifted with a drop on the purest sunlight.’

‘We serve you now, Rapunzel of Corona’ The blue one said ‘My name is Dazzle’

‘Mine is Blaze’ said the Orange Pixie

‘And I am Hue’ Said the Purple one smiling ‘The moon was right, Rapunzel of Corona, you are powerful and your aura shines as brightly as the sun herself in the sky.’

 

  

Rapunzel felt a wave of gratitude and she felt like sobbing in relief. “Thank you” She whispered to the Pixies. They smiled at her. “Can you help me find my way out.”

They all gave tinkling laughs like small ringing bells. ‘Of course’ Blaze said ‘This is our home. Pitch can darken and twist things, but he cannot truly change them. Follow us’

The three Pixies took off down the hallway keeping close to the ground. They warned Rapunzel not to go up into the high ceilings. ‘Namtar keeps his minions up there’ Dazzle said uneasily ‘Of all the dark creatures, we like the Spirit of Decay and his minions the least’

They zipped along dodging Nightmare’s and Black Wolfs (‘Called Grimms’ Hue said ‘Nirrhiti’s lap dogs’) They once passed Gothel, and Rapunzel was sure that she could sense Rapunzel close by, as Gothel paused in conversation with Pitch and glanced around as Rapunzel was hiding waiting for them to pass.

Gothel stared around the room, with a suspicious glance. She walked, just barely missing Rapunzel. She then resumed talking with Pitch and left the room, but not before giving it an accusatory glare. Punz let out the breath she was holding, and continued onward.

Bells tolled suddenly distant, but definitely still within the Castle. “What does that mean”

‘It means we need to hurry’ Blaze said

‘They know you’ve escaped’ Hue said ‘People will be searching for you, we need to get out of here’

She could hear shouts in the distance and knew that they were right. She broke into a run, and the Pixies flew faster than ever.

Rapunzel flew around a corner...and then skidded to a halt as she heard voices. “...Do you really have to search the entire castle Once. I mean who knows how long she’s been gone. Punz is probably already long gone” It was Breeze.  she glanced up and locked eyes with Punz. Punz backed around the corner sweating nervously.

“Pitch’s orders”  The Once-ler said walking into view

“Once-”

“Breeze, I know how you feel about him, but can we please just get this over with. I... really wanted to spend time with you, and the faster we get this done,  the faster we do that”

There was a pause. Breeze sighed “Alright... why don’t I search down these rooms and you can take the corridor to the left”

Once smiled. “Ok” He took her hand and kissed it. “Until we meet again, my lady” He proclaimed in a dramatic voice.

Breeze shook her head smiling. “Oh Once” He dispersed down another hallway. Breeze listened and when his footsteps had faded to nothing, she called out “He’s gone now Punz, you can come out”

‘Most likely a trap, Rapunzel’ Blaze said ‘I would not listen to her’

Rapunzel shook her head. “She already knows where I am” She murmured “If she was going to hand me over, I wouldn’t still be here”

‘Fair point’ Hue said ‘But then why is she with the darkened one’s’

Rapunzel didn’t reply, and instead stepped into the hallway facing her friend. She almost recoiled in shock. Breeze undergone a disturbing transformation. Her chestnut hair was now almost black. Her usually tan skin was now several shades paler, and she no longer had freckles. The most distressing of these however was her eyes. They had gone from a grass green, to a yellow, like Pitch’s.

“Punz, What are you doing here” Breeze said urgently

“I think the better question is: What are you doing here Breeze?” Punz said “You haven’t joined Pitch have you?”

Breeze looked horrified. “No! I’m going undercover... there was an opportunity and I took it. Punz, how could you think that!”  

“Umm Breeze,” Rapunzel said “Have you looked in the mirror lately. I think we both need to escape before whatever happened to you gets worse.”

Breeze looked uncomfortable. “I know, but it’s not effecting me, and it would be a shame to blow my cover so early…”

“And of course this has absolutely nothing to do with The Once-ler” Rapunzel said annoyed. “And the fact that he’s trying to right everything that went wrong between you”

Breeze now looked extremely uncomfortable, and she opened her mouth to speak, but then closed and bit her lip.

“So that’s it then” Punz said incredulously “You're just going to put everything we worked toward in Jeopardy because you want to spend time with your Boyfriend”

Anger and hurt flashed across Breeze’s eyes. “Can you blame me for wanting that.” She said, voice rising “Do you know hard hard it was for me! I spent six years watching my best friend, the guy I fell in love with, destroy everything I loved around me including himself, and then leaving him because I couldn't take it any more.”

“I can’t blame you for wanting” Punz said angrily “But I can condemn you for giving in. We’re supposed to be better than this”

“Well maybe I don’t want to anymore” Breeze said frustrated “Maybe for once in 600 years I want to be a little selfish. Maybe I don’t want to have to be perfect!”

“Listen to yourself” Rapunzel pleaded “Please Breeze come escape with me-”

But Breeze had already shaken her head turning her eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry” She finally said. “I’d better get going, they’ll suspect if I’m gone to long.” Still studying the floor, she turned away. “I’ll keep them away from here for as long as I can” Breeze said and then she was gone.

Rapunzel stared after her still in shock. ‘I truly am sorry Mistress’  Dazzle said sadly ‘The darkness can twist even the very best of Spirits’

‘We must get going’ Blaze said insistently ‘If we will ever have a chance of restoring any Spirit, we will need to get out of here’

Punz nodded numbly following the Pixies. But it wasn’t long before they stopped in front of a small door that might belong to a closet.

‘This is an little known exit.’ Hue explained seeing the confused look on Rapunzel’s face. ‘This is how Sulis Transported herself to the Nature Glade. Se would become a SunBeam materialising at the Glade where all the Nature Spirits gather when something happens that requires all of their attention.

‘And the Dark King doesn’t know about it and never will’ Dazzle said smugly ‘Not that would he be able to use it anyway. All three of them let out their bell like laughs again, and darted into the small closet as Rapunzel opened the door.

‘Just place your hand on the wall’ Hue said ‘like you did before’ Punz did so nervously and-just like before-The walls and floor became light colored again, with golden designs covering them. Unlike before however the room just kept getting brighter and brighter, before the room before her dissolved completely, and the world was nothing but light and color.   


End file.
